February 27, (THEWILL) – Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, has lost his senatorial bid for the Benue North West constituency to a former aide, Titus Zam of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The returning officer, Prof. Rufus Shaato, declared Zam the winner of the election on Monday, at the INEC zonal office in North bank, Makurdi.
Declaring the result before newsmen and party agents, Shaato said Zam polled a total of 143,151 to emerge the winner of the election.
The Peoples Democratic Party’s Samuel Ortom polled a total of 106,882 votes, while the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mark Gbillah, had a total of 51,950 votes.
Results from various polling units, ward and Local Government Area collation centres across the senatorial district indicated that the Governor lost in 6 out of the 7 Local Government Councils, winning in only his Guma Local Government.
The senator-elect was Ortom’s Special Adviser on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs during his first tenure.
Meanwhile, the incumbent Senator representing Benue South senatorial district, Senator Abba Patrick Moro, has defeated Comrade Daniel Onjeh of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and Hon Joseph Ojobo of the Labour Party (LP) to retain his seat.
Announcing the results at the INEC Collation Centre in Otukpo, the INEC Chief Returning Officer for Benue South Senatorial election, Prof Robert Tee, said that Senator Moro scored 76,459 votes to beat his closest rival and candidate of the APC, Comrade Daniel Onjeh, who scored 59,938 votes.
Joseph Ojobo of the Labour Party scored 40,194 votes to come 3rd.
As of the time of filing this report, the result for the Benue Northeast senatorial district with incumbent Senator and former Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam of the PDP and Emmanuel Memga Udende of the APC is still being collated.
