Amidst controversies, the Independent National Electoral Commission has declared Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje winner of Kano governorship election.
The electoral body gave Ganaduje the victory over the main challenger, Abba Kabir-Yusuf of the Peoples Democratic Party by 8982 votes, after the supplementary elections held on Saturday.
According to the result announced by the returning officer, Ganduje of the All Progressives Congress polled 1,033,695 votes while Kabir-Yusuf got 1,024,713 votes.
The PDP agent reportedly walked out of the collation centre before the announcement of the result.
Before the supplementary election, the PDP candidate had 1,014,474 votes, while Ganduje got 987,819 votes.
In the supplementary elections held in polling units in 28 LGAs, Ganduje got an upper-hand,
winning 45,876 votes while the PDP candidate got 10,239 votes.
The Collation Officer in Kano, Prof. Bello Shehu, declared Ganduje the winner having satisfied requirements of the law by scoring the highest number of votes.
According to Shehu, the winner was declared after the collation of result from all the affected 28 local government areas where the supplementary elections was conducted on Saturday March 23.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalled that the governorship election was earlier declared inconclusive following the high number of cancelled votes as a result of violence and over-voting.
According to the collation officer, the total number of votes cancelled during the earlier election which led to the declaration of the poll as inconclusive was more than the margin between the PDP candidate who was leading with 26,000 votes and that of the APC candidate.
NAN recalled that the votes cancelled during the March 9 governorship election was 128,572 votes.
Meanwhile, the PDP Chairman in Kano, Alhaji Suleiman Rabiu – Bichi has rejected the entire re-run election, especially that of Gama in Nassarawa Local Government Area.
The PDP Chairman further described the election processes as shameful and called for the immediate cancellation of the exercise.
According to him, the party will not accept the result. It therefore refused to sign it.
Also, Governor Simon Lalong of the All Progressives Congress was declared the Plateau State governorship election, following the supplementary poll held on Saturday.
Lalong was declared the winner by the Returning Officer in the state, Prof Richard Kimbir, after scoring 595,582 votes to defeat 23 other candidates, including the Peoples Democratic Party standard-bearer, Jeremiah Useni, who garnered 546,813.
Kimbir stated that a total of 1,159,954 valid votes were recorded while 16,188 were rejected, saying 1,176,142 was the total number of votes cast.
The results for the nine LGAs that took part in the supplementary poll, including Barkin Ladi, Bassa, Bokkos, Jos North, Kanam, Langtang South, Mangu, Pankshin and Shendam, showed that Lalong scored 12,327 new votes, while the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Jeremiah Useni, earned 8,487. There was no cancellation of results recorded.
Lalong had scored 583,255 votes in the March 9 poll, while Useni got 538,326.
However, with the 44,929 margin of lead and the total number of cancelled votes at 49,377, the Returning Officer in Plateau State, Prof Richard Kimbir, had declared the election inconclusive.
Of the nine LGAs affected by the supplementary elections, results presented by election officials at the state collation centre on Sunday night showed that Lalong won in six.
In Bassa, the APC candidate earned 1,040 votes against the PDP’s 367. Similarly, in Bokkos, Lalong had 1,342 votes while Useni got 1,337.
The ruling party also won in Kanam with 944 votes against the PDP’s 476. Meanwhile, in Mangu, Lalong took 6,931 votes with Useni earning 3,520.
In the same vein, Lalong was victorious in Pankshin with 446 votes against Useni’s 151, while the APC earned 337 votes in Shendam trumping the PDP’s 80 votes.
But Useni who won Barkin Ladi with 296 votes against Lalong’s 41 is crying foul.
In Jos North, the PDP candidate also triumphed with 1,036 votes while the APC candidate had 274.
Similarly, Useni won in Langtang South with 1,224 votes against Lalong’s 972.
Meanwhile, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state on Sunday survived the tough challenge of Ahmed Aliyu and his godfather Senator Aliyu Wamakko of the All Progressives Congress to win re-election for a second term.
Although he lost in the collated result for 35 polling units in Kebbe LGA, he was able to edge his opponent, his former deputy, by retaining the lead, winning by just 341 votes.
He polled 512002 votes, while his APC challenger got 511661 votes.
After the results from 21 LGAs were tallied, Tambuwal led with 2057 votes, after polling 506,545 votes. Aliyu, his APC challenger had 504,488 votes.
However, the margin of APC’s victory in Kebbe was not enough to change the final picture.
APC polled 7177 votes while PDP got 5457 votes.
The returning officer Professor Fatima Mukhtar, vice chancellor of Federal University of Dutse is set to announce the final result for all the 22 LGAs.
In Benue, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party Samuel Ortom, has been re-elected for a second term.
The Returning Officer in the state, Professor Maimako Sebastian, declared him the winner on Sunday after he polled 434,473 votes to beat his closest rival and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Emmanuel Jime, who got 345,155 votes – a margin of 89,318.
In the March 9 exercise, Ortom scored 410,576 votes over Jime who scored 329,022 votes.
The election was, however, declared inconclusive by the electoral umpire due to the gap between the cancelled votes of 121,019 and the winning margin of 81,554 votes.
The supplementary election was held in 204 polling units across 22 Local Government Areas.
PDP’s Bala Muhammed wins in Bauchi
Meanwhile, the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Bala Mohammed, has won the supplementary election in Bauchi State.
Returning Officer Professor Kyari Mohammed made the announcement on Sunday, a day after the exercise took place in the state.
According to him, the PDP candidate polled a total of 6,376 while the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Muhammed Abubakar, who is the incumbent governor polled 5,117.
The RO, however, noted that he is in no position to make a return because the case involving the Tafawa Balewa LGA is still in court.
The Federal High Court in Abuja had on March 19 stopped the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from proceeding with the collation, conclusion and announcement of the result of the governorship election in the state held on March 9, 2019.
Justice Inyang Ekwo issued the order based on an ex parte application filed by the APC and the governor, Mohammed Abubakar.
Governor Abubakar had filed the application in court after he criticised the electoral body for its decision to continue with the collation of results after it had earlier declared the exercise in the state inconclusive.
INEC had declared the exercise inconclusive after the margin between the two leading candidates was said to be less than the number of cancelled votes.
According to the Returning Officer, Kyari Mohammed, results collated showed that the candidate of the PDP, polled 469,512 votes, while the candidate of the APC secured 465,453 votes.
The Commission, however, later insisted that it would resume the collation of results of Tafawa Balewa LGA on March 19 after considering a report submitted by the REC.
It also challenged the powers of the court to stop the collation and announcement of results.
According to its legal officer, Hassan Adamu, the court has no jurisdiction to interfere in post-election litigation.
Filing a counter affidavit, he argued that any post-election matter is exclusively reserved for the Election Petitions tribunal and not for any regular court.
The Commission, however, later agreed to hold the supplementary elections on March 23 in all other LGAs except Tafawa Balewa.
- with agency/ online reports
