The deputy president of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, has been declared the winner of his Enugu West Senatorial District for the fifth consecutive time.

Mr Ekweremadu’s political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), also won the two House of Representatives seats in the district.

The district has five local governments’ areas of Oji River, Aninri, Ezeagu, Awgu, and Udi.

Announcing the result at about 12:10 a.m. on Monday, the Returning Officer for the senatorial district, Douglas Nwagbo, a professor, said Mr Ekweremadu polled 86,088 ahead of his closest rival, Juliet Ibekaku-Nwaugwu of the APC who polled 15,187.

Other political parties that presented candidates in the senatorial election included APGA, ADC, UPP, PPN, among others.

While APGA scored 6,881, ADC polled 838; UPP scored 202 with MMPN scoring 127.

According to the returning officer, the district has a total of 461,517 registered voters; 118,023 accredited voters while 109,929 votes were recorded as valid votes.

Mr Nwagbo said; “I must add that a total of 4,960 votes were rejected, making the total votes cast in the senatorial district to equal 114,889.”

Shortly after the announcement of the result, Mr Ekweremadu thanked the people of his district, his political party and his family, including friends and well-wishers.

He said the circumstances leading to his election makes it unique, being the first man to be elected five consecutive times in the entire South East.

“I am not taking this election for granted, especially by the unprecedented nature of my election,” said Mr Ekweremadu.

“This is the first time within this part of Nigeria that someone would be elected consecutively for five times into the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It has never happened and I am not taking it for granted. I indeed feel very humbled and I give all the glory and thanks to the Almighty God who has made it possible.

“Recall that about a year ago, we went through a lot of storm for the major part of 2018 so nobody believed that a day like this will come where I will stand for an election and be declared winner. So, only God can make that possible.

“I must also thank my friends and associates, the great people of Enugu West, very industrious people, highly civilized people, highly accomplished people, very educated people, who in spite of the fact that I am just a little boy from Mpu, have given me this unprecedented opportunity.

“I would like to thank my family members for supporting me all the time and if you look at the last 48 hours, a lot of people have made a lot of commitment to ensure that this process is accomplished. So, I would like to thank the INEC officials for their commitment to our democracy, the security agents for their patience and professionalism.

“I would like to thank members of the press who have stood behind us to ensure that there is reportage for all that is going on in different parts of the country, it is not a small investment in our democracy.

“I believe that what is expected of us this time is to give back to the society that has given us this opportunity and those that have given us this confidence to ensure that this confidence is not misplaced. So a lot is lying on our shoulders. I would like to say clearly that we will not disappoint you.”

Mr Ekweremadu also spoke about the general elections across the country, saying the challenges within the last few hours are avoidable.

“We have had challenges in different parts of the country but we thank God that Enugu State is different because the governor has built a peaceful atmosphere over the past three and half years and this has manifested in the peaceful conduct of the elections in the State. So I can say that elections in the state were quite successful.

“We didn’t have many challenges as such, in terms of security or casualties. I am not sure we witnessed any casualty in any part of Enugu State. This is exactly what we looked for, what we prayed for, what we expected and this is what democracy should look like. I believe that other states should come to Enugu State and learn how to conduct themselves in elections.”

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