Simon Lalong of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has emerged the winner of the governorship election in Plateau state, after defeating five other candidates.

The Returning Officer, Prof. Emmanuel Kucha, Vice Chancellor, University of Agriculture Makurdi, declared the results in the early hours of Monday.

Kucha said that Lalong polled a total of 564, 913 votes, to defeat his closet challenger, Sen. Gyang Pwajok of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 520, 627, winning by a margin of 44, 386 votes.

The result conformed with pre-election forecast that the APC was poised to upset Governor Jonah Jang’s PDP in the governorship poll because of the governor’s cronyism in backing his cousin, Pwajok as his successor.

Other contestants were Mr Samson Adamu of All Progressives Grant Alliance (APGA) with 1, 408, Bagudu Hirse of Labour Party scored 1, 770 votes, Mrs Elizabeth Yirse Mega Progressive Peoples Party 1, 035 votes while Anuma Agudu of Social Democratic Party got 260 votes.

“Rt Hon. Simon Lalong having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes in the election, held on April 11, 2015, is hereby declared the winner,’’ Kucha declared.

The APC won in 11 out of the 17 local governments areas,while Pwajok won in six.

Lalong, a lawyer by profession, is a former speaker of Plateau House Assembly, who served for two terms when Joshua Dariye was the governor of the state.

He was back into the legal practice after he left office in 2006, and decided to vie for the number one seat in the state on the ticket of the APC.

The governor elect hails from Shendam Local Government Area in the Southern Senatorial District of Plateau.