Even as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) Ahmed Aliyu, has called Governor Aminu Tambuwal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to congratulate him on his victory in Saturday’s supplementary election, the Sokoto State Chapter of the APC on Sunday rejected the declaration of Gov. Tambuwal as winner of the governorship election. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tambuwal winner of the election with a narrow margin of 342 votes, after Saturday’s supplementary poll.
The Chief Collation/Returning Officer, Prof. Fatima Mukhtar, said that Tambuwal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secured the highest votes of 512, 002, defeating his close rival Alhaji Ahmad Aliyu of APC, who polled 511, 660 votes. ”PDP candidate, Aminu Tambuwal having scored the highest votes in the election, is hereby declared winner and returned elected according to law” Mukhtar said.
Mukhtar, Vice Chancellor of Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa state said the votes were tallied along with previous ones recorded after the March 9 election. The election then was declared inconclusive because the vote difference between Tambuwal and his challenger was lower than the cancelled votes.
The total number of registered voters was 1, 887, 767 while 1, 083, 413 voters were accredited. Total number of valid votes was 1,036,332 and the total number of rejected votes was 31, 662. The number of total votes cast was 1, 067, 994, Mukhtar said.
According to her, during the re-run election, PDP’s Tambuwal polled 22, 444 votes while APC’s Aliyu scored 25, 515 in the 135 polling units where supplementary elections were conducted. She further explained that 49 candidates from other participating parties shared the remaining votes cast.
However, the APC agent at the collation centre, Alhaji Maigari Dingyadi raised the complaints the party made to INEC earlier about the malfunctioning card reader at certain polling units; among other irregularities. The PDP agent, Alhaji Umar Bature, dismissed the objections on the ground that the collation centre was not the right place to lodge the complaint. Prof. Mukhtar noted the complaint and said that it would be reflected in the final report.
But the Sokoto State APC rejected the results saying the margin of 342 votes was far less than the registered voters in polling units where elections were not held, a development the party claimed, contravened the electoral law. Addressing a press conference in Sokoto, the APC’s spokesman, Alhaji Bello Danchadi, also rejected the INEC declaration on grounds that the process was flawed with irregularities, which he said were duly reported to electoral body.
Danchadi said He said the party had also registered its complaints to INEC, which included alleged outright rigging perpetrated by the PDP. He alleged that some eligible voters at some polling centres were denied voting, and in some places repeated voting were recorded.
“We draw the attention of INEC to a number of polling units that were canceled as result of violent attacks by thugs, while others were arbitrarily canceled to please certain political party interests. In view of these we deem it necessary to express our disagreement with the action taken by INEC to declare a winner without giving us a fair hearing in our position in the electoral processes,” Danchadi said.
It is worth-recalling that the APC candidate, Aliyu was Tambuwal’s deputy until Tambuwal dumped the APC to join his old PDP, in order to run for the presidential election. Aliyu resigned and became the candidate of the APC to run against his former boss.
