01/04/2023
Enugu North senatorial district, consisting 6 local government areas (Udenu, Uzo-Uwani, Igbo Etiti, Igbo-Eze South, Igbo-Eze North and Nsukka LGA), has 102 voting wards and 1,488 polling units. Despite having 714,401 eligible registered voters in the 2023 general election, only 162,919 valid votes were cast in the senatorial election.
The victory of Br Okey Ezea is well deserved as he is a hard-working and consistent politician, and one of the founding fathers of the Labour Party in Enugu state. He previously contested under the Labour Party against PDP Br Sullivan Chime in the 2011 governorship election but lost in a landslide, and again in 2015 under APC but lost in another landslide to Gov Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of PDP. However, he later won against Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi in his polling unit, Amube Amalla II Orba ward in Udenu LGA, with 28 votes against PDP's 17 votes.
On the other hand, Ambassador Ejike Eze, the senatorial candidate of APC from Kanya Hall polling unit, Echara/Isiagu ward in Ibagwa-aka, performed poorly in his first political outing. Although he managed to win his polling unit with 198 votes against Labour Party's 71 votes, he lost his ward to the Labour candidate, scoring 487 votes against Ideke's 648 votes. However, the result of 3 polling units uploaded in the INEC IREV portal was unclear, making it difficult to determine the actual figures. Kanya Hall registered the highest number of votes per polling unit (1,850) in Igbo-Eze South, and Echara/Isiagu ward recorded 10,218 eligible voters in the 2023 general election, but only 1,397 voted in his ward. The total votes scored by Hon Ejike Eze (6,816) in the senatorial election was below the total number of votes registered in his ward.
Igbo-Eze South contributes 18.4% of the total registered voters while Ibagwa-aka holds 4% voting power in the Enugu North senatorial election. Sen. Okey Ezea should take it to heart that CPS I & II polling unit in Ezema Ibagwa-aka gave him 60% of the total 334 votes cast in the Ndioke Autonomous community centre. Their Autonomous community is a new and tender community that is struggling with the death of their ruler and survival. Hopefully, his administration will bring development to them.
Okey Ezea
