THE immediate past governor of Kebbi State and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in Saturday’s gubernatorial re-run election, Alhaji Saidu Usman Nasamu Dakingari, has received 875,492 votes to beat the other 14 opponents in the race.
Dakingari victory was announced yesterday by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC’S) state Returning Officer for the polls, Prof. Lawal Suleiman Bilbis, who is also the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics) of the Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto.
Of the 1,616,945 voters that registered, only 934,693 (57.81 per cent) voted, of which 24,572 were voided.
The CPC candidate, Malam Abubakar Abubakar polled 17,918 votes to come a distant second while Kabiru Tanimu of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) polled 4,656 votes to place third.
The All Nigeria Peoples Democratic Party (ANPP) candidate, Alhaji Suleiman Argungu, received 2,528 votes while the NTP candidate, Mohammed Nasiru, scored 2,056 votes .
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan has congratulated Dakingari for winning the Kebbi election .
The President, who described Dakingari’s election as “emphatic,” thanked old and returning members of the PDP in the state for heeding calls by the PDP leadership for reconciliation and unity in the party; and working together to ensure that Dakingari won overwhelmingly in the election.
In a statement by the his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, the President said as Dakingari prepares to return to the Governor’s Office in Birnin-Kebbi, he should “do his utmost best to ensure that the people of Kebbi State who gave him and the PDP a landslide victory are rewarded with an effective and efficient administration that will deliver good governance and rapid state-wide development.”
The President assured Dakingari that “the efforts of his incoming administration to continuously improve the living conditions of the people of Kebbi would be supported by the Federal Government.”
Jonathan also commended voters in the state, INEC as well as the security agencies for playing their parts in ensuring that the election ordered by the Supreme Court was peaceful and successful.
The Nigerian Civil Society Election Situation Room (polls monitors) said the election was boycotted by the ACN, CPC, and ANPP candidates.
The group said the turnout for the elections was low, with voter apathy marring the legitimacy of the polls.
It suspected that a lot of voters were dissatisfied with the absence of any meaningful choice and decided to stay away from the voting process.
The group said reports from the various polling units indicate early arrival of INEC officials and voting materials. The voting process started early, first with the accreditation of voters, and followed promptly with actual voting.
In most polling units, voting, it noted, ended at 2.00 p.m. A few voters complained of their names missing from the voter register. In some cases, INEC, the group claimed, allowed some of the voters, whose names were missing from the register, to cast their votes.
“The election was peaceful. There were no serious reports of violence as the election was largely uncontested against the candidate of the ruling PDP.
“There was good presence of security personnel during the polls, with police, state security service, road safety, civil defence corps and other para-military personnel on ground to facilitate the proper conduct of the elections,” the group said.
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