The All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate for governor in Benue State, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, has been proclaimed the election’s victor and new governor by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Titus Uba, a candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), came in second with 223,913 votes against the Catholic priest’s 473,933 votes.

Alia was pronounced the winner by the returning officer, Prof. Faruq Kuta, and the vice-chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Minna.

Governor Samuel Ortom of the PDP G5 is anticipated to be replaced by Alia, a member of the ruling APC.

Twenty governorship polls have had results released thus far. With 14 states, the APC leads the pack, followed by the PDP with five and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) with one. The electoral body pronounced the election in Kebbi to be inconclusive, and it suspended the collation of the results of the governorship elections in Abia and Enugu.

Official results from the March 18 elections in Nigeria, West Africa, have been announced for nine of the 11 governors who ran for reelection.

They are the governors of Borno State Babagana Zulum, Lagos State Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Ogun State Dapo Abiodun, Oyo State Seyi Makinde, Kwara State AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, Gombe State Inuwa Yahaya, Nasarawa State Abdullahi Sule, Bauchi State Bala Mohammed, and Yobe State Mai Mala Buni.

Among the 28 states, 11 of the current governors ran for re-election, and 17 of the outgoing governors are nearing the end of their constitutionally mandated two terms of eight years after taking office on May 29, 2015.