APC

Candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC have been declared winners of governorship elections conducted in Jigawa, Yobe, Gombe and Kwara States conducted on Saturday.

According to results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in the four states, the APC candidates defeated their Peoples Democratic Party, PDP candidates to win the governorship polls.

In Gombe, Gov. Inuwa Yahaya of APC scored 342, 821 votes to defeat his closest rival Mr Jibrin Barde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 233, 131 votes to be reelected for a second term of office.

According to results declared by the returning officer, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) polled 19,861 votes while Keftin Amuga of Labour Party polled 1,753 in the election.

Yahaya won in nine out of the 11 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state, while the difference between APC and PDP scores was 109,690 votes.

In Yobe, INEC also declared Gov. Mai Mala Buni reelected.

INEC Returning Officer, Prof. Umaru Pate, said that Buni of APC polled 317,113 votes to defeat his closest opponent, Alhaji Sherif Abdullahi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 124, 259 votes.

“ That Buni Mai Mala of APC having satisfied the requirements of the law is hereby declared the winner of the election, and returned elected,” he said.

Pate, also the Vice Chancellor, Federal University Kashere in Gombe, said Alhaji Garba Umar of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP) came a distant third with 14,246 votes, while Arabi Mohammed of the Action Alliance (AA) polled 3,260.

He said the number of registered voters was 1,485,141, while the number of total accredited voters was 459,492, saying that the number of valid votes was 444,567, while the number of rejected votes was 13,214 and the total votes cast was 457,781.

Also, INEC declared Malam Umar Namadi of the APC winner of the Jigawa governorship election.

The Returning Officer for the poll, Prof. Umar Zaiyan of Federal University Birnin Kebbi, announced the result on Sunday in Dutse.

Zaiyan said that Namadi scored 618,449 votes to beat his closest rival, Mr Mustapha Sule Lamido who polled 368,726 votes.

He said: “I Prof. Umar Zaiyan hereby certify that Umar Namadi of APC, having satisfied the requirements of the Law is declared the winner of Jigawa governorship election.”

According to him, 1.07 million voters were accredited in the March 18 election with 1.05 million votes cast, out of which 1.03 million votes were the total valid votes cast at the exercise.

The 60-year-old politician and chartered accountant also defeated Malam Aminu Ringim of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) who clinched 37,156 votes.

The PDP had earlier called on the returning officer to declare a section of the election as inconclusive.

When the party agents were called in by Zaiyan to sign the result sheets containing the scores of each candidate in the governorship contest, the PDP’s agent, Malam Abubakar, declined to endorse it.

He said that the returning officer ought to have addressed his complaints before proceeding to perfect the formalities of signing the result sheets, as such he left the collation centre without signing the result.

In Kwara, INEC said the APC gubernatorial candidate and incumbent governor of the State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazak won Saturday’s gubernatorial election.

While declaring the results, the Returning Officer (RO) and Vice Chancellor of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Professor Issac Itodo said AbdulRazak, won in all the Local Government Area of the state.

Abdulrazak polled 273,424 votes to defeat his closest rival of the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP), Shuaib Abdullahi., who polled 155,490 votes to win a second term of office.