The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Malam Umar Namadi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the Jigawa governorship election.
The Returning Officer for the poll, Prof. Umar Zaiyan of Federal University Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State, announced the result on Sunday in Dutse.
Zaiyan said that Namadi scored 618,449 votes to defeat 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 agent, Malam Aminu 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.
Namadi, the incumbent deputy governor of Jigawa State, was born on April 7, 1963, and obtained degree in Accountancy and Masters degree in Business Administration from Bayero University, Kano.
The governor-elect had served in various capacities both in public and private sectors.
Jigawa has a total of 27 local government areas.
The PDP agent, Abubakar, accused INEC of “unjustified” cancellation of more than 22 polling units results in Birnin Kudu LGA alone, where the PDP candidate hails from.
He also argued that the results were characterised by “a lot of abnormalities” in the five LGAs and called on the returning officer to declare the election in those areas inconclusive.
The PDP agent alleged that the abnormalities committed in those areas were deliberate, because the areas were stronghold of the party.
In his reaction, the All Progressives Congress (APC) agent, Dr Abdullahi Kainuwa, dismissed the objection raised by the PDP.
He said that there were rules and procedures provided by the Electoral Act for tackling such issues which PDP ought to have followed when collation was concluded.
Kainuwa said that it was very clear that the PDP was fretting, having realised that it had lost the governorship election.
Responding, the returning officer said all the issues raised by the PDP agent would be given attention immediately after the full collation of the results.
