The candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for the Onitsha North I State Constituency, Barr. Ifeoma Mimi Azikiwe, has been declared winner of the byelection held on Saturday.
Announcing the result, the Returning Officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Ibiam Ekpe of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, said Azikiwe polled 7,774 votes to defeat Mrs. Justina Azuka of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), who scored 1,909 votes.
Justina is the widow of the slain lawmaker who previously represented the constituency before he was kidnapped on the eve of Christmas 2024. His body was later discovered in the bush near the Second Niger Bridge on February 6, 2025.
Mr. Ezennia Chuka Ojekwe of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Ms. Njideka Ndiwe of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) received 1,371 and 655 votes respectively.
Prof. Ekpe commended both candidates and voters for their peaceful conduct during the exercise.
Azikiwe will now serve out the remaining two years of the late lawmaker’s tenure. Upon inauguration by the Speaker of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Dr. Somtochukwu Udeze, she will become the second female legislator in the eighth Assembly.
The 30-member Assembly, inaugurated in June 2023, currently has only one female member, Hon. Nkechi Ogbuefi of Anaocha I Constituency, elected on the platform of the Labour Party (LP).
