He scored 160,895 votes to defeat his closest rival, Chijioke Edeoga of the Labour Party (LP), who polled 157,552 votes.

Frank Nweke Jnr of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) scored 17,983 while Chief Uche Nnaji of the All Progressives Congress (APC) scored 14,575 votes to come a distant third and fourth respectively.

The Returning Officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state, Prof Maduebibisi Ofo Iwe declared Mbah the winner Wednesday evening at the resumption of the final collation of governorship election results in Enugu, the Enugu State capital just 48 hours after INEC suspended the exercise in the state.

Before the announcement, Prof. Iwe had said he was requested to come to Enugu because the commission had concluded the review of the results of Nkanu East and Nsukka LGAs, which were under contention.

He said: “We have come back to conclude the collation of results. We received some petitions particularly against Nsukka and Nkanu East LGAs and these things were taken to Abuja for resolution.