Senator George Thompson Sekibo, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the Rivers East senatorial district election, held on Saturday has been declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
INEC returned Sekibo as winner on Tuesday afternoon after results from the eight local government areas, LGAs, that constitute Rivers East were collated almost 48 hours after voting ended.
He defeated Andrew Uchendu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, polling 93,098 votes to defeat Uchendu who had 34,193 votes.
It was gathered that there was a confrontation between PDP members led by Governor Nyesom Wike and security operatives before the final result was declared at the Port Harcourt City Council Hall.
Wike had mobilised his party members to the venue of the collation centre to demand declaration of the result. The people defied security operatives who were shooting sporadically. They believed there was a plot to change the result in favour of Uchendu.
“We are ready to die, nobody can change our result,” the PDP members shouted.
Sekibo would be returning to the Senate for the third time. He was first elected to represent Rivers East in the Senate in 2007. Previously, he was in the House of Representatives between 2003 and 2007, representing Ogu/Bolo/Okrika Federal Constituency.
He has a history of acrimony with former Rivers governor and now Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.
In January 2008, Sekibo accused Amaechi of causing tension between people of Okrika and Ikwerre communities with his ultimatum to the former community to produce militant leader, Ateke Tom.
He then said Amaechi should use legal means to apprehend Atake.