INEC declares Tambuwal winner of Sokoto governorship election

News Agency Of Nigeria

March 24, 2019 3:22 PM

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Gov. Aminu Tambuwal winner, of the governorship election, after Saturdays supplementary poll. He won by a small margin of 342 votes,

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According to the Chief Collation/Returning Officer, Prof. Fatima Mukhtar, Tambuwal of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secured the highest votes of 512, 002, defeating his close rival Alhaji Ahmad Aliyu of All Progressives Congress (APC) who polled 511, 660 votes.

Aminu Tambuwal of sokoto state Pulse Nigeria

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, who is the 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, PDPs Tambuwal polled 22, 444 votes while APCs Aliyu scored 25, 515 in the 135 polling units where supplementary elections were conduced.

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 a polling unit in Tambuwal.

Dingyadi added that election was repeated at the polling unit, after lawful election was conducted on March 9 election.

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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.