The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and incumbent governor of Plateau, Simon Bako Lalong as the winner of the state governorship election.

According to the result announced early Sunday at the commission’s headquarters in Jos by Richard Kimbir, the state’s returning officer and Vice-Chancellor of the Benue State University of Agriculture, Makurdi, the APC  candidate won the election with a margin of 48,769 votes.

Governor Lalong who was first elected in April 2015 secured a second term by polling 595,582 votes out of the total 1,176142 votes cast to defeat his closest challengers Jeremiah Useni of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Jonathan Temlong of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) who scored 546,813 votes and 4,670 votes respectively.

The commission had earlier declared the March 9 governorship election in the state inconclusive as the margin of victory was less than the cancelled votes, leading it to conduct supplementary elections on Saturday in 40 polling units across nine local government areas of the state.