The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the governorship candidate of the Labour Party, Alex Otti winner of the governorship election in Abia State.

INEC Returning Officer in the state, Prof Nnenna Nnannaya-Oti declared Otti the winner on Wednesday evening at the resumption of the final collation of governorship election results in Umuahia, over 48 hours after INEC suspended the exercise in the state.

“That Otti Alex Chioma of Labour Party having satisfied the requirement of the law is hereby declared the winner of the election,” said Nnannaya-Oti, who is the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri.

Otti won at his third attempt. He was the candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in the 2015 and 2019 elections.

He scored 175,467 votes, Okey Ahiwe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled 88,529 votes, while Enyinnaya Nwafor of the YPP got 28,972.

The LP candidate also won 10 of the 17 local government areas in the state, PDP got six while the YPP got one.