Governorship: APC wins in Borno, Zamfara

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Monday, declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Babagana Zulum, winner of the governorship election in Borno State.
Declaring the result, the INEC Returning Officer in the state, Prof. Alhassan Gani, said Zulum polled 1,175, 440  votes to beat his closest opponent, Muhammad Imam, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 66, 115 votes.
Gani announced that INEC had registered 2,316,218 voters in the state, out of which  1,292,138 voters were accredited for the election.
He disclosed that a total of 1,289,027 votes were cast, out of which the APC polled 1,175,440 votes and PDP scored 66,115 votes.
The returning officer added that a total of  1,266,967 valid votes and 22,060 rejected votes were recorded in the election contested by 32 candidates.
According to him, the APC candidate polled the highest votes cast in the 27 local government areas and fulfilled the requirements of the law.
“Babagana Zulum, the governorship candidate of the  APC, having scored the highest number of votes and fulfilled the requirements of the law, is hereby returned elected,” he said.
Gani commended the electorate, stakeholders, party agents, observers and security personnel for the peaceful conduct of the exercise.
Meanwhile, Alhaji Muhammad Makintami, the agent of the APC and other agents of political parties accepted the results and signed the document on behalf of their parties.
However, the agent of the PDP refused to sign the result document on behalf of the party after the collation exercise.
The PDP governorship candidate, Muhammad Imam, had earlier petitioned INEC over alleged irregularities in the election.
Also, Muktar Idris of APC emerged winner of Zamfara State governorship election.
Muktar secured 534,541 votes out of the 810,782 votes cast across the 14 local government areas of the state.
Announcing the result,  the Returning Officer,  Prof. Kabir Bala, said “Muktar Idris of APC having met all the requirements of the law and scored the highest votes is hereby declared as the winner and returned elected as the governor of Zamfara State.”
He said that Bello Matawalle of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) scored 189,452 to emerge second while Sen. Saidu Dansadau of National Rescue Movement scored 15,177 votes and Sani Abdullahi of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) had 3,865 votes.
According to the Returning Officer, the state has 1,717,128 registered voters, of which 823,294 were accredited during the election.