The Independent National Electoral Commission, on Sunday, declared Alhaji Saidu Dakingari of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the winner of the Kebbi governorship rerun on Saturday.The Returning Officer, Prof. Suleiman Bilbis, said Dakingari got 875,492 votes to defeat his Congress for Progressive Change rival, Alhaji Abubakar Abubakar, who scored 17,918 votes.
Bilbis, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, also said the Action Congress of Nigeria candidate, Alhaji Kabiru Tanimu, who came third, scored 4,555 votes.
The election was contested by 15 political parties, including the All Nigeria Peoples Party whose candidate, Alhaji Suleiman Argungu, who withdrew from the race 24 hours before the election.
Ten days earlier, the candidates for the CPC and ACN had withdrawn from the race and joined the PDP.
The election was necessitated by the nullification of the victory of Dakingari in the 2011 governorship election by the Supreme Court following a petition by the CPC candidate, Abubakar.
The CPC had announced its boycott of the election because of what it described as the refusal of INEC to allow it to field a replacement for Abubakar.
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan has congratulated Dakingari on his victory.
Jonathan thanked old and returning members of the PDP in Kebbi State for heeding calls by the party leadership for reconciliation and unity in the party and working together to ensure Dakingari's victory.
In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, the President urged Dakingari to do his best to ensure that the people of Kebbi State, who gave him and the PDP a landslide victory, were rewarded with an effective and efficient administration that would deliver good governance and development in the state.
Also, the Governor-elect, Dakingari, said that the fresh mandate he received in Saturday's election was an indication of his acceptance by the people of Kebbi.
The Media Adviser to Dakingari, Malam Alhassan Musa, told the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday that the new mandate was an indication of the popularity of the governor-elect's policies and programmes over the years.
"In this election, there is no victor or vanquished. The PDP will carry everyone along in major decision making and progarmme implementation,'' he said. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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875,492 votes in Kebbi state! Where did they come from is it Birnin Kebbi, Bonza, Jega, Yauri (birnin and Yelwa), where? Well, it is possible brother came from Niger, and underaged joined them.
ReplyDeleteFraud will not end in this country's electoral process especially when PDP is involved.
Who's making this infantile prognosis? Shouldn't you be surprised that less than a million voted in a gubernatorial election? That the opposing party wanted to change their ardently unpopular candidate thereby admitting they made a mistake in using him in the first instance. Unless you have evidence of rigging, just shut up and stop bad-mouthing everybody.
ReplyDelete