Tambuwal, Ganduje, Ortom, Lalong, Bala win Sokoto, Kano, Benue, Plateau, Bauchi guber poll

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), yesterday announced Aminu Tambuwal, Abdullahi Ganduje, Samuel Ortom, Simon Lalong and Mohammed Bala as winners of Saturday’s supplementary governorship election in Sokoto, Kano, Benue, Plateau and Bauchi states.
Sokoto
The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Aminu Tambuwal scored the highest votes in the governorship election.
The incumbent governor of the state led with a slim margin of 341 votes.
Tambuwal polled 512, 002 from both the March 9 governorship election and March 23 supplementary election, while his main challenger, Ahmad Aliyu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) secured 511, 661 votes.
Kano
The returning officer, Bello Shehu, declared Ganduje of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the 2019 governorship election.
The results of a combination of March 9 and 23 elections showed APC as garnering 1,033,695, while Abba Yusuf of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) netted 1,024,713. Ganduje won with a margin of 8,982.
Declaring the winner of the election, Shehu said the APC candidate garnered 1,033,695, while Abba scored 1,024,713 votes.
He said the APC candidate defeated the PDP candidate with 8,982 votes margin and therefore declared Ganduje the winner, having satisfied the requirements of the law by scoring the highest number of votes.
According to Shehu, the winner was declared after the collation of results from all the affected 28 local government areas where the supplementary elections was conducted on Saturday, March 23.
He said Ganduje polled a total of 45,876, while Kabir of the PDP got 10,239 votes during last Saturday’s supplementary elections in 28 Local Government Areas of the state.
The governorship election was earlier declared inconclusive following the high number of cancellation of votes as a result of violence and over-voting.
Meanwhile, the PDP state chairman, Suleiman Rabiu-Bichi, has rejected the entire re-run election, especially that of Gama in Nassarawa Local Government Area.
The PDP chairman described the election processes as “shameful” and called for the immediate cancellation of the exercise.

…tension as DSS, policemen clash at collation centre

Policemen and officials of the Department of State Services (DSS) clashed at head office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Kano State, yesterday.
The altercation was over a fresh screening conducted by the DSS at the collation centre.
Journalists and observers were already seated in the collation hall, waiting for continuation of the event when security personnel asked everyone to leave the hall and present themselves for another screening.
Armed DSS, reportedly drafted from Abuja, took over the screening and the policemen who had controlled entry into the hall earlier were pushed aside.
This led to a dispute between policemen and one of the DSS operatives which almost turned ugly save for the intervention of a senior security officer.
A similar incident happened between policemen and soldiers in Rivers State on March 10, forcing INEC to suspend all electoral processes in the state.
There was widespread disruption and violence during the supplementary election in Kano on Saturday.
As a result of this, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) called for the cancellation of the rerun.
Rabiu Sulaiman-Bichi, acting chairman of the PDP, alleged that the process had completely been taken over by armed political thugs.
“Today this charade called re-run election was slated to hold in Kano and other states but unfortunately, what we have in Kano is nothing but a sham,” he had said.
But reacting, the All Progressives Congress (APC) had said the major opposition party was afraid of losing the election, hence, the call for the cancellation of the rerun.
Meanwhile, the police has debunked the rumour being peddled that curfew had been imposed on Kano metropolis, as residents await the final results of the governorship election.
Plateau
In Plateau State, the incumbent governor, Lalong who ran on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) polled 595, 582 votes while Jeremiah Useni of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), secured 546, 813 votes according to INEC.
The returning officer for the election, Richard Kunbi, made the declaration early hours of Sunday.
The election in Plateau like other states was declared ‘inconclusive’ because the number of cancelled votes was higher than the margin between the two leading candidates.
Benue
The incumbent Governor and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ortom was declared winner of the supplementary governorship election.
Ortom, who recently defected to the PDP, defeated his closest rival, Emmanuel Jime of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and 31 other contestants.
Declaring the result, the state returning officer, Sebastain Maimako, said Mr Ortom polled a total of 434,473 votes to beat Jime who got 345,155 votes.
Before the supplementary election, Ortom had scored 410,576 votes and had a lead of 81,554 votes over Jime who had scored 329,022 votes.
The supplementary election was held in 204 polling units in 22 local governments, which had a total of 121,299 registered voters.
Bauchi
Bala Mohammed, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), secured 6,376 votes ahead of Mohammed Abubakar of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who had 5,117 votes in the supplementary election held on Saturday.
The results were declared at the head office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after a delay of over 18 hours.
The supplementary election held in 36 polling units in 29 wards across 15 local government areas of the state.
Summation of both elections brings the PDP figure to 544,699 and that of APC to 588,372, with the later leading with a margin of 43,673.