Obi's Tsunami: LP Candidate Wins Ogbaru Reps Seat in Anambra

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has declared Hon. Victor Afam Ogene of the Labour Party (LP) the winner of the Ogbaru House of Representatives seat.

Afam beat the incumbent House of Representatives member of the constituency, Hon. Chukwuma Onyema of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who is a third-term member of the Green Chamber.

Declaring the results at Atani, headquarters of Ogbaru Local Government Area, the Returning Officer, Professor Kingsley Ubaorji of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, said “Hon. Afam Ogene of Labour Party polled 10,851 votes of the total votes cast, followed by the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP), Hon Chukwuma Wilfred Onyema who got 10,619 votes, while Hon. Arinze John Awogu of APGA came third with 10,155 votes.

Others are, Mrs. Nkechi Ismade of APC got 303 votes, Nwachukwu Victor of ADC scored 39 votes, Obunne Celestine of NNPP polled 124 votes Nwadialor C of SDP scored 27.

“That Hon Afam Ogene of the Labour Party, having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes cast is declared winner of the election,” the Returning Officer said.

Prematurely, the PDP led with over 1,000 votes in the supplementary election, while APGA came second, followed by LP. However, when the result was summed up with the previous February 25th election, the Labour Party Candidate came first followed by the PDP candidate and APGA as second and third.

Recall that the election in Ogbaru Federal Constituency was declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, after the Feb. 25 presidential and National Assembly elections.

While the State governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, obviously supported his APGA candidate in the race, Sen. Stella Oduah was said to have supported the PDP candidate in the race while the presidential candidate of the Labour Party and former governor of Anambra state, Peter Obi, solidly supported Ogene.

Obi told the Ogbaru people that “Ogene is a good candidate, who is humble, loyal and honest”, and would ensure that the development of Ogbaru was not neglected.

The former governor made the appeal on April 13, while on a roadshow campaign tour of the wards in the Ogbaru Federal Constituency, where INEC is slated to conduct a supplementary election to determine the ultimate winner of the federal constituency seat.

Obi was accompanied by Senator-elect, Tony Nwoye, and Mr. Oseloka Obaze wherever he presented the LP candidate in the federal constituency to the people of the area, he told the people that Ogene was committed to his (Obi’s) philosophy of “building a new Nigeria.”

Obi said, “I am here to beg you to vote for us, vote for Labour Party, vote for Afam Ogene, we will support him, and, he will rebuild here (Ogbaru).

“Remember that I built all these roads here when I was governor, if you vote for us in this Saturday's re-run election, we will come back to thank you; Afam Ogene will develop here.”

The Labour Party won both the presidential and senatorial poll in Ogbaru in February, while its candidate, Ogene, was also leading other parties comfortably in the House of Representatives election before it was declared inconclusive.