The former Governor of Ebonyi State, Sam Egwu, has lost his bid to return to the Senate for a third term.
Mr Egwu of the Peoples Democratic Party represents Ebonyi North Senatorial District in the Senate. The district, including elections for the House of Representatives seat there, has now been won by the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Mr Egwu lost to a former state chairman of the PDP who later joined APC, Peter Nwebonyi, who was declared the winner by INEC.
Mr Nwebonyi of the APC garnered a total of 65,863 votes. His closest opponent, Ejiofor Chukwu of the Labour Party scored 42,283 votes to emerge second while Mr Egwu came a distant third with 26,569 votes.
The report was announced by the INEC Returning Officer for Ebonyi North Senatorial Zone, Nwogo Obasi, at the INEC office in Abakaliki Local Government Area on Sunday night.
Also, a former state chairman of the APC, Nwachukwu Eze, defeated his Labour Party and PDP opponents to win the Ebonyi/Ohaukwu Federal Constituency seat. He garnered 22794 votes to beat his closest challenger, Ndubuisi Agbo of the Labour Party who polled 14,168 votes
The candidate of the PDP, Victor Aleke, garnered 11,611 votes to place third in the election.
