Erhiatake Ibori-Suenu, the daughter of the former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, has clinched the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) ticket for Ethiope Federal Constituency at the 2023 general elections.
Ibori’s daughter pulled 46 votes against the incumbent, Ben Igbakpa, who got 22 votes.
Investigative journalist, Fejiro Oliver, stated:
The only candidate Okowa and I were on same page was Ben Igbakpa. Till this very morning, Okowa’s instruction was for Ben to be voted in by delegates, this I can tell you for free.
The contest was between Ibori and Okowa NOT Ben Igbakpa and Erhitake.
Meanwhile, the former Commissioner for Water Resources, Evelyn Oboro, equally pulled 45 votes against her opponent, Gbinije, who scored 36 votes.
Prior to this development, no official winner was declared when Igbakpa and Erhiatake, tied at the end of the contest held on Sunday.
The results of the party primary ended in a stalemate as the two contestants scored 34 votes each.
Igbakpa while reacting to the result via his Facebook page post, at that time, thanked God for the polls. However, his opposition, Erhiatake, made no comment or a formal statement on the primary’s initial verdict.
The outcome of the election forced the party to declare a re-run between both contestants in order to decide the party’s flagbearer at next year’s general election.
On the same day, the contest for the party primaries in the Isoko constituency was marred with crisis as unknown gunmen stormed the election venue, shooting sporadically shortly after the election results were announced.
The state legal adviser of the party, Bernard Odion had won with 23 votes thus beating the incumbent, Jude Ogbimi, who polled one vote.
