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END OF MATTER IN IMO,ABIA AND DELTA

2015: The end of the matter in Delta, Imo and Abia on April 27, 2015 / in Politics 12:56 am / Comments By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor THe last word for now in the 2015 general elections came to an end yesterday after the results in three governorship contests and a major Senate contest were released. There were no surprises in the trend in the three governorship contests in Imo, Abia and Taraba as the leaders proceeded to an end with no jolt. Expectations from some that Senator Aisha Alhassan would become the first female in Nigeria’s history to be elected a governor were dashed when the Peoples Democratic Party
, PDP’s governorship candidate in Taraba overwhelmingly confirmed the supremacy of the party in the state. The PDP candidate, Darius Ishiaku according to the results released yesterday came tops with 53,120 votes to boost her total votes after the April 11 election to 360,318 votes while Alhassan, who was credited with 13,599 votes yesterday now, came to a total of 275,985 votes.  Besides her female gender, Senator Alhassan was also running to upturn another record, the fact that no Muslim had been elected governor of the largely Christian dominated state. Besides the religious and ethnic sentiments that resonated in the Taraba contest, Mama Taraba as Alhassan is fondly called was cast against the state’s dominant power brokers who were determined to stop a Muslim from taking over control again. Stormy opposition Remarkably, Alhassan has paid her political dues, having masterminded stormy opposition to Governor Danbaba Suntai before the plane crash that put the governor out of everyday life. Ishaku-Darius Ishaku-Darius However, the declaration of Governor Rochas Okorocha of the APC as the winner of the governorship contest in Imo State is one that is bound to further sharpen the division in the state. Opposition to Governor Okorocha is as sharp as emotional support for him, and that view was reflected after the commission declared him as winner of the election yesterday.
On one hand a band of supporters stormed the streets in wild celebration of the return of the maverick governor while on the other hand a number of people wore forlorn faces in seeming indignation of the return to power of the very man that they hate. Okorocha polled a total of 416,996 votes to defeat his closest rival, Chief Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP who scored a total of 320,705 votes.
 The vote puts an end to Ihedioha’s 12 year run in elected public office since his first election to the House of Representatives in 2003. Okorocha’s victory is bound also, to elicit interest from stakeholders in the state on the preponderance of the Orlu Senatorial District over the governorship of the state. Given the eight year stewardship of Chief Achike Udenwa who is from Orlu Senatorial District, and now, another eight years from Okorocha who is from Orlu, it would mean that the other two senatorial districts – Okigwe and Owerri – would have only held the governorship for four years.
 The question of marginalisation was, however, reversed in the contest in Abia State where Okeize Ikpeazu, the candidate of the PDP, was returned as governor-elect after polling the majority of votes in the election that concluded on Saturday.