APC's Simon Lalong returned as Plateau State governor after Inec declares him the winner of supplementary poll

PLATEAU State's Governor Simon Lalong has been declared the winner of the supplementary elections that took place in the state yesterday after the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) proclaimed him the victor with 48,769 votes.

Like most of Nigeria's other states, Plateau went to the polls on March 9 to elect a governor but the election was declared inconclusive due to malpractices in some constituencies. After the March 9 election, Inec said it could not declare a winner and proceeded to organise a supplementary election in the affected local government areas on Saturday March 23, which have now been concluded and collated.

This morning, Inec announced the results with the returning officer Professor Richard Anande Kimbir, the vice chancellor of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi, declaring Governor Lalong the winner. According to Inec, Governor Lalong polled a total of 595,582 votes to defeat his nearest rival, General Jeremiah Useni of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 546,813 votes.

Results for the nine local government areas that took part in the supplementary poll, including Langtang South, Barkin Ladi, Bassa, Bokkos, Jos North, Kanam, Mangu, Shendam and Pankshin showed that Governor Lalong scored 12,327 new votes, while General Useni, scored 8,487 votes. When added to the tally recorded after the original elections that held on March 9, Governor Lalong emerged victorious with an overall margin of 48,769 votes.