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| Simon Lalong |
Governor Simon Lalong of the All Progressives Congress has won the Plateau State governorship election, following the supplementary poll held on Saturday.
Lalong was declared the winner by the Returning Officer in the state, Prof Richard Kimbir, after scoring 595,582 votes to defeat 23 other candidates, including the Peoples Democratic Party standard-bearer, Jeremiah Useni, who garnered 546,813.
Kimbir stated that a total of 1,159,954 valid votes were recorded while 16,188 were rejected, saying 1,176,142 was the total number of votes cast.
The results for the nine LGAs that took part in the supplementary poll, including Barkin Ladi, Bassa, Bokkos, Jos North, Kanam, Langtang South, Mangu, Pankshin and Shendam, showed that Lalong scored 12,327 new votes, while the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Jeremiah Useni, earned 8,487. There was no cancellation of results recorded.
Lalong had scored 583,255 votes in the March 9 poll, while Useni got 538,326.
However, with the 44,929 margin of lead and the total number of cancelled votes at 49,377, the Returning Officer in Plateau State, Prof Richard Kimbir, had declared the election inconclusive.
Of the nine LGAs affected by the supplementary elections, results presented by election officials at the state collation centre on Sunday night showed that Lalong won in six.
In Bassa, the APC candidate earned 1,040 votes against the PDP’s 367. Similarly, in Bokkos, Lalong had 1,342 votes while Useni got 1,337.
The ruling party also won in Kanam with 944 votes against the PDP’s 476. Meanwhile, in Mangu, Lalong took 6,931 votes with Useni earning 3,520.
In the same vein, Lalong was victorious in Pankshin with 446 votes against Useni’s 151, while the APC earned 337 votes in Shendam trumping the PDP’s 80 votes.
However, Useni won Barkin Ladi with 296 votes against Lalong’s 41. In Jos North, the PDP candidate also triumphed with 1,036 votes while the APC candidate had 274.
Similarly, Useni won in Langtang South with 1,224 votes against Lalong’s 972.
