Chukwudi Akasike, Port Harcourt

THE senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for Rivers East Senatorial District, Senator George Sekibo, has been declared winner of the Rivers East Senatorial District seat contested in the December 10th rerun election.

Sekibo defeated his rival, Chief Andrew Uchendu of the All Progressives Congress, to claim the seat.

The returning officer for the senatorial district, Orji Onu Okumenkama, said Sekibo polled 93,098 votes to defeat Uchendu who scored 34,193 votes.

However, Sekibo’s victory was followed by a protest by APC leaders in the state, who maintained that they would not accept the result.

Meanwhile, there was commotion at the Port Harcourt Local Government Secretariat before the result was announced as security agents shot sporadically into the air.

It was gathered that a PDP collation agent, Chinyere Igwe, who is the State Commissioner for Urban Development, was arrested at the secretariat by the police.