In what looked like battle royale, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) grabbed three states while All Progressives Congress, APC won one state in the Saturday’s re-run governorship election conducted.
So far, in the March 9 and March 23 governorship election conducted in the country, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has clinched 14 states, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won 12 states.
Results of Adamawa and Kano States are still being expected while that of Rivers State is equally pending.
Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state survived the tough challenge of Ahmed Aliyu and his godfather, Senator Aliyu Wamakko of the All Progressives Congress to be re-elected.
Although he lost in the collated result for 35 polling units in Kebbe local government area to edge his opponent, his former deputy, he was able to maintain the lead, winning by just 341 votes.
He polled 512,002 votes, while his APC challenger got 511,661 votes.
After the results from 21 local government areas were tallied, Tambuwal led with 2,057 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 5,457 votes. Overall in the supplementary votes, APC got 25,515 votes while Governor Tambuwal of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled 22,444 votes.
The returning officer Professor Fatima Mukhtar, vice chancellor of Federal University of Dutse announced the final result for all the 22 local government areas.
From Plateau State, incumbent Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Plateau, was declared winner of the re-run election in the State.
Lalong polled 595,582 votes to win, with his closest rival, Jeremiah Useni, a retired Army General who was the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), scoring 546,813 votes.
Prof Richard Kimbir, the Returning Officer, presented the result on Sunday in Jos on behalf of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Plateau. “The valid votes totalled 1,159,954, with the rejected votes standing at 16,188, while the total votes cast was 1,176,142,” he said.
The margin of victory between Lalong of APC and Useni of the PDP is 48,769 votes. The governorship election held on March 9 in Plateau had been declared inconclusive. This had led to a rerun election in 40 polling units in nine local government areas of the state.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Plateau state, General Jeremiah Useni (rtd) alleged that Governor Simon Lalong used the N20 billion support fund for rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons ( IDPs).
In the Bauch State supplementary poll, Bala Mohammed of PDP scored 6,376 votes to defeat Muhammed Abubakar, his opponent of All Progressives Congress (APC), and the current governor of the state, who polled 5,117 votes.
Mohammed’s victory was announced on Sunday, March 24, by the Returning Officer Professor Kyari Mohammed.
However, the returning officer, pointed out that he cannot conduct a return since the case of the Tafawa Balewa LGA is pending in court.
Hon. Emmanuel Jime of the APC has called to congratulate Dr. Ortom whose victory must have been the most fought for in the aftermath of a head – on collision with the ruling party, the president and his former godfather, Senator George Akume.
He also carried a performance baggage as well as being indebted to civil servants for a year.
The re-run in Benue State was mired by violence. Professor (Mrs) Comfort Dooshima Tuluen, the Collation Officer for Gboko local government Council in the Governorship Election as well as another Collation Officer are both in hospital after being shot at by armed men at Tarka in Tarka Local Government Council.
The unnamed Collation Officer is from the University of Agriculture, Makurdi. The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) has appointed Dr. Joseph Mom from the University of Agriculture, Makurdi to take the place of Prof Tuluen in the meantime. That is what Dr. Nentawe Yilwatda, Resident Electoral Commissioner for Benue State said in a press statement.
Thugs invading polling units, snatching ballot boxes or disrupting voting were common in places such as Azendeshi Ward in Ukum LGC or Yanwe Ward in Kwande LGA or Mballagh Ward, near the Army Barrack in North Bank, Makurdi or IJHBAN Ward in Ado LGC where some five persons armed with pistols were grabbed and detained by the police and the army, amongst others.
On March 12, out of the 22 states where winners had been announced, 12 were re-elected. They are Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, Emmanuel Udom of Akwa Ibom State, Ben Ayade of Cross River State, Partick Okowa of Delta State, Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State, and Ifeanyi Ugwanyi of Enugu State
Also on the list of re-elected governors are Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa state, Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state, Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina state, Abubakar Bagudu of Kebbi state, Abubakar Bello of Niger state, and Darius Ishaku of Taraba state.
The new faces in the Nigeria Governors’ Forum include Babagana Zulum of Borno state, Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe state, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, and Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa state.
The rest are Emeka Ihedioha of Imo state, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun state, Seyi Makinde of Oyo state, Mai Mala Buni of Yobe state, Muktar Idris of Zamfara state.
There are seven states which election did not hold. These are Anambra, Bayelsa, Ekiti, Osun, Kogi, Ondo and Edo. APC controls five; PDP- Bayelsa and APGA- Anambra.
