Governorship Election In Sokoto, Adamawa, Plateau Declared Inconclusive

AISHA ABUBAKAR

 The electoral umpire, INEC, has declared the governorship election in Sokoto, Adamawa and Plateau States inconclusive.

This followed the declaration made by the Returning officers in the affected states at the State Collation Centres.

In the Plateau State capital, the Returning Officer, Professor Richard Kimbir announced that the margin of a lead of 44,929 between the APC and the PDP candidates is less than 49,377 cancelled votes. According to him, this constrains him to return a winner but rather declare the election inconclusive and bye-elections should hold in the affected areas.

Simon Lalong of APC polled a total of 583,255 votes while Jerry Useni of PDP scored 538,326.

In Sokoto, Professor Fatima Muktar had given the same reason for her decision and asked those troubled to channel their grievances to the electoral body. She explained that the election was inconclusive because the margin of the votes won was far lesser than the number of those cancelled.

According to her, a total of 1,881,767 voters registered in the state while 1,033,081 voters were accredited for the exercise. The total number of votes cast was 1,018,024 out of which 987,942 were counted as valid votes.

After collating the results from all the local government areas, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled 489,558 while the All Progressives Congress (APC) garnered 486,145 votes.

Professor Muktar noted that there was cancellation in 136 polling units across 22 LGAs with 75,403 registered voters. She stressed that the margin of win by the PDP was 3,413 votes, which was way less than the number of cancelled votes. She thereafter declared the election inconclusive, saying INEC would take a decision on the matter while also asking those troubled by the declaration to channel their grievances to the electoral body.

It was the same situation in Yola, the Adamawa State, as the Returning Officer, Prof Andrew Haruna, declared the election inconclusive owing to the margin between the cancelled votes in about 40 polling units and the difference between Jibrila Bindow of the APC and Ahmadu Fintiriof the PDP.

Before the declaration Ahmadu Fintiri was leading the incumbent Governor, Jibrila Bindow, with a margin of 32, 476 votes; having polled 367, 471 while Bindow scored 334, 995. A total of 894, 481 voters were accredited for the exercise on Saturday.