•As 18 parties battle for 5 Senate, 31 Reps, 57 state assembly seats
•We’re ready for elections — Sokoto PDP
The All Progressives Congress, APC; and the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, are locked in a battle for survival in today’s supplementary governorship elections in Adamawa and Kebbi states.
While the PDP is leading in Adamawa, the APC is having the upper hand in Kebbi.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared the March 18 governorship polls in both states inconclusive.
The INEC declared the Kebbi State governorship election inconclusive following the cancellation of results in 69 polling units across 20 of the 21 local government areas of the state.
From results collated so far, the APC governorship candidate has 388,258 votes while the PDP flagbearer has 342,980 votes, a difference of 45,278 votes.
Number of collected Permanent Voters Cards, PVCs, is 91,829, hence the supplementary poll, the INEC said.
In Adamawa, PDP’s Governorship standard bearer, Governor Umaru Fintiri is leading Aishatu ‘Binani’ Dahiru, his APC challenger after the announcement of results from 20 of the state’s 21 local governments.
From the results announced so far, Mr Fintiri is leading with over 35,000 votes. While he has 401,113 votes, Binani has 365,498 votes.
The supplementary election will be in 142 polling units with 96,319 registered voters of which 94,209 registrants collected their PVCs.
Both parties have been boasting of their chances of winning the election. However, Aishatu Dahiru remains hopeful of becoming the first woman to be elected a state governor in Nigeria with the expectation of securing a large victory in Fufore LGA to surpass Fintiri’s current lead.
Apart from the two governorship polls there will be other elections.
State Houses of Assembly
For the states House of Assembly positions, elections will be held for 57 constituencies in 17 states. They are: Akwa Ibom (1), Bayelsa (1), Ebonyi (5), Edo (3), Ekiti (1), Imo (1), Kaduna (5), Kano (14), Kebbi (8), Niger (4), Ogun (1), Taraba (1), Yobe (1), Jigawa (3), Katsina (3), Enugu (1), Adamawa (4).
Senatorial
The Senatorial elections will be held in the North-western states of Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara.
In Sokoto, supplementary elections are to hold for all three senatorial seats -Sokoto North, Sokoto East and Sokoto South- where elections were earlier declared inconclusive. Elections will be held in 389 polling units across all the 23 LGAs of the state. Altogether, there are 227,743 eligible voters to participate in the election.
In Kebbi and Zamfara, the election is to hold in one senatorial district each -Kebbi North and Zamfara Central. While the election will be holding in 23 PUs in the Kebbi North senatorial elections, voters in 83 PUs will be voting for the Zamfara Central senatorial election. They have 13,243 and 47,277 eligible voters, respectively.
House of Representatives
Meanwhile, supplementary elections for the House of Representatives will be held for 31 constituencies in 15 states. They are; Akwa Ibom (2), Anambra (1), Bayelsa (1), Edo (1), Imo (1), Kano (2), Kebbi (2), Kogi (1), Oyo (2), Rivers (2), Sokoto (11), Taraba (1) , Zamfara (2), Jigawa (1) and Ebonyi state (1).
We’re ready — Sokoto PDP
Meanwhile, the Sokoto State chapter of the PDP, has declared it’s readiness for the polls The Publicity Secretary of the party, Hassan Sahabi Sanyinnawal, said the PDP optimistic of winning all the Senatorial and National Assembly seats.
While urging voters to come out en mass, the PDP called on security agencies to provide an enabling environment for the election to take place through the provision of adequate security at all polling units to ensure violence-free polls.
The PDP further called on political actors, the general public and INEC officials to ensure that the supplementary polls are free and fair.
Vanguard