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Tag: Ganduje

  • Kano: PDP’s Abba files petition against Ganduje’s victory

    Twenty days after the declaration of Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje as winner of the March 23 governorship election in Kano State by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the PDP in Kano on Thursday finally filed petition against the victory.

    The petition filed by the party before the governorship election tribunal is contending that it’s governorship candidate Abba Yusuf, won the March 9 election, as such any result other than that was a nullity.

    The party is also contending that the supplementary election conducted by INEC was unconstitutional and unlawful.

    Speaking to journalists shortly after filing the petition, Yusuf said during the March 9 governorship election the PDP got the highest votes across the 44 local governments in the state.

    “The prayer we are asking is for the tribunal to determine the actual winner in the election that took place on March 9.

    ” To me as the PDP candidate the only election that took place was on March 9.”

    He noted that the issue of supplementary election as far as PDP is concerned was an illegality ‘which we reject and have nothing to do with That is the content of the petition.”

    The petitioners Counsel, Maliki Kuliya-Umar, said the declaration of the March 9 election as inconclusive was an opportunity given to APC to rig its candidate back to power.

    “We trust the tribunal to do what is right by confirming the election of March 9, as it was the only election recognized by law,” he said.

    Umar argued that whatever reason INEC had to declare the March 9 election inconclusive was unconstitutional and not in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.

  • INEC presents certificate of return to Ganduje, others

    INEC presents certificate of return to Ganduje, others

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday presented certificate of return to Kano State Governor-elect, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje.
    Similarly, the state deputy governor-elect, Dr Nasiru Gawuna and 23 state Assembly members-elect were also presented with the certificate.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 13 state Assembly members-elect of the people Democratic Party were conspicuously absent during the occasion which was held at the Sani Abacha Indoor sports Complex in Kano.

    Speaking shortly after receiving the certificate, Ganduje promised to lay a solid foundation for the social and economic development of Kano state through the provision of quality education.

    According to him, the state government would soon unveil its plans for partners and private investors to enable them come to the state and invest.

    Ganduje said the state government would provide the incentives and the enabling environment to enable investors wishing to establish their businesses to do with ease.

    “Anybody who wants to set up innovative businesses or educational institutions, Kano is waiting to welcome him or her.

    “We must ensure that all our youths receive quality education. We must ensure all our girls are also educated, so we can unlock the 50 per cent of economic output currently not being accessed by our society due to the low participation of women.

    “We must also make sure that our state becomes an attractive destination for investment and business, with a focus on the investments that will improve our human capacity.

    “Agriculture is already the mainstay of our economy – our plan is to attract Investment which increases our outputs and unlock economic growth for all of us,”he said.
    He said the government would also partner with local communities to ensure even the poorest of the communities have access to schools to educate their children.

    He therefore, called on the people of the state to give the state government the necessary support and cooperation to move the state to next level.

    Earlier, the INEC Resident Commissioner, Prof. Riskuwa Arab-Shehu said the commission would continue to partner with relevant stakeholders on the issue of voter education.

    Also speaking, the INEC National Commissioner in charge of Kano, Katsina and Jigawa, Engr. Abubakar Nahuce urged politicians to embrace the spirit of sportsmanship for the development of democracy in the country.
    NAN reports that the PDP state Assembly members-elect that were absent during the occasion are for Dala, Nasarawa, Kano Municipal, Gwale, Fagge and Tarauni constituencies.
    Others are for Kibiya, Kumbotso, Dawakin Kudu, Gezawa, Ungoggo, Bebeji and Rogo constituencies.

  • Forgive my shortcomings, Emir of Kano begs Ganduje

    The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, has following his alleged involvement in politics, where he was said to have allegedly taken sides with former governor Rabiu Kwankwaso’s godson Abba Kabir Yusuf against Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, is said to have asked for forgiveness from Ganduje over his shortcomings.

    This is coming amidst heated opposition which trailed Governor Ganduje’s re-election, with rumor making the rounds on the alleged involvement of some notable individuals in partisan politics before the just concluded gubernatorial election including the Emir and the Emirate Council.
    The Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II, who organised a special prayer session, Saturday, at the Kano Central Mosque, praying for Allah’s protection and guidance for Ganduje’s administration, also said: “You should endeavor to forgive and forget what happened”.

     

    Emir Sanusi took more than an hour explaining why it was necessary for forgiveness in anything that has to do with governance and social relationship, insisting that “Misunderstanding is sometime caused by sycophants. It is therefore necessary for us to always pray for Allah’s protection from such elements.”

    Sanusi made it clear: “It is not bad for anyone to hold on to his or her opinion about happenings in the society. But what is necessary and paramount is the fact that after election, all people should come together and see to the successful tenure of government in power.”

  • Supplementary Polls: How Ortom, Lalong, Ganduje, Tambuwal scaled through hurdles of reelection

    Supplementary Polls: How Ortom, Lalong, Ganduje, Tambuwal scaled through hurdles of reelection

    Governors Samuel Ortom (Benue), Simon Lalong (Plateau), Umar Ganduje (Kano) and Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto) have retained their seats after the collation of Saturday’s supplementary polls.

    But their challengers – Emmanuel Jime (Benue), Jeremiah Useni (Plateau), Aliyu Sokoto (Sokoto) and Abba Yusuf (Kano), have rejected the results as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the close of the second ballot yesterday.

    They plan to seek judicial redress.

    Ortom of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled 434,473 to defeat his All Progressives Congress (APC) challenger Jime, who scored 345,155; incumbent Plateau helmsman and APC candidate Lalong beat his PDP challenger Useni and Tambuwal of the PDP scored 512, 002 to beat APC’s Sokoto, who polled 511,660.

    The INEC had declared elections inconclusive in six states as there were no clear winners on the first ballot on March 9.

    The states are: Adamawa, Benue, Bauchi, Kano, Plateau and Sokoto. The commission fixed March 23 for makeup polls but a court barred the electoral umpire from going ahead in Adamawa and in Bauchi’s Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area.

    An Abuja Federal Court will today rule on INEC’s application to vacate an ex parte order barring it from conducting supplementary poll in Tafawa Belewa Council Area.

    Also tomorrow in Adamawa, a High Court will rule in an objection suit filed INEC against order obtained by Movement for the Restoration and Defence of Democracy (MRDD) governorship candidate Rev. Eric Theman, challenging the exclusion of his name of the ballot paper.

    Tambuwal, was returned after a keen contest with a lead margin of 342 votes.

    In the earlier results before the makeup poll, Tambuwal had 489,558 votes, leading with 3,413 as against APC’s Sokoto’s 486,145.

    Declaring the results in Sokoto yesterday at the Sultan Muhammadu Maccido Institute for Quranic and General Studies, venue of the collation, the Returning Officer and Vice Chancellor of the Jigawa State University, Dutse, Prof Fatima Batulli Mukhtar, said the APC got 25,515 and the PDP scored 22, 444 from the 22 local government areas where the makeup was conducted.

    According to Mukhtar, 50, 332 of the 95,022 registered voters were accredited. Those whose votes were valid were 48,309 and 1,580 were rejected.

    Merging the final results, the Returning Officer said the PDP scored 512,000; APC returned 511,660 votes with a total registered voters of 1,887,767 and 1,083,413 accredited for the exercise.

    Prof Mukhtar also gave the valid votes as 1,036,336 with 31,662 as rejected votes while 1,067,990 represented total votes cast.

    He said: “That Aminu Waziri Tambuwal having satisfied the electoral requirements and returned the highest votes is hereby declared winner of the Sokoto state governorship election.”

    In a swift reaction to the declaration, APC agent and campaign Director-General, Alhaji Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi, objected to the presentation of the results from Kebbe Local Government Area on two issues – malfunctioning Smart Card Reader and non-conduct of the exercise in some polling units. He urged INEC to look into his observations.

    Maigari said: “We strongly object the result from Kebbe and call on the electoral umpire to do the needful.”

    The electoral body noted the observations and complaints raised by the APC, saying that it will be in its record for possible attention.

    PDP supporters and well-wishers took to the streets to celebrate the victory.

    BENUE

    After days of intense suspense, emotional and psychological torture among the Benue populace, INEC yesterday returned Ortom as winner of the supplementary governorship poll.

    The election was declared inconclusive because the number of votes cancelled in areas where elections were disrupted was more than the margin of lead by Ortom after the March 9 governorship election.

    State Collation Officer Prof. Sebastine Maimako, Vice Chancellor, University of Jos, announced Ortom as winner having satisfied the requirements stipulated in the Electoral Act and guidelines for the declaration of winner of the election.

    The final statistics as announced by Maimako showed that 858,947 of the 2,471,894 registered voters were accredited for the election.

    The valid votes were 830,954; rejected votes (15,268) and the valid votes were 846,222.

    PLATEAU

    The INEC declared Lalong as winner of the election.

    The governor was declared the winner by the Returning Officer, Prof Richard Anande Kimbir, Vice Chancellor of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State.

    Announcing the final results, Prof Kimbir said, Simon Lalong of the APC polled 595, 582 votes to beat Useni of the PDP, who scored 546, 813.

    “I hereby declare Simon Lalong of APC returned as governor of Plateau State, having polled the highest numbers of votes in the state’s governorship election,” the returning officer said.

    Results of the supplementary election held in nine local government areas, including Langtang South, Barkin Ladi, Bassa, Bokkos, Jos North, Kanam, Mangu, shendam and Pankshin, showed that Lalong scored 12,327 new votes. The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Jeremiah Useni, earned 8,487.

    The result of the supplementary was, therefore, added to that of the main election before it was announced.

    BAUCHI

    In Bauchi State, the PDP candidate Senator Bala was leading incumbent Governor Mohammed Abubakar of the APC in the supplementary governorship election conducted in 36 Polling Units (PUs), covering 29 Registration Areas (Wards) in 15 local government areas.

    The makeup poll did not hold in the Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area, owing to a court order.

    Mohammed garnered 6376 votes against Abubakar’s 5117 votes on Saturday. He was leading the incumbent with 1259 between both parties.

    The result was announced in Bauchi yesterday by the Returning Officer, Prof. Mohammed Kyari, Vice Chancellor of the Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola.

    At the close of the ballot on March 9, Mohammed had 469,512 votes. Abubakar had 465,453. The 4059 lead margin prompted INEC to declare the poll inconclusive after a Federal High Court in Abuja halted the collation and announcement of results for the Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area.

    Abubakar got a court injunction restraining INEC from continuing with the collation and announcement of election results. Judgment will be delivered today.

    The total votes scored so far by Mohammed in the 19 out of the 20 council areas has increased to 475,888. Abubakar’s stands at 470, 570 votes. The difference is 5,318 votes.

    The PDP yesterday urged the governor to concede defeat and work together with the party for the progress of the state.

    Speaking in a telephone interview, the PDP Chairman, Hamza Koshe Akuyam said the “right thing for the governor to do is to surrender in the face of an imminent defeat”.

    Mohammed has expressed gratitude to the people for their support.

    He said: “We owe our victory to the people of Bauchi who have stood very firm on the threshold of freedom and liberty and have shown that they are the icons of democracy and liberty. Words alone cannot express my appreciation to them all.”

    The former FCT minister addressed a news conference at the Command Guest House in Bauchi immediately the results of the election were announced.

    KANO

    Incumbent Governor Umar Ganduje of the APC was last night declared winner of the makeup governorship election Kano State.

    Declaring the winner of the poll, Collation Officer Prof. Bello Shehu said that after merging the final results, the APC candidate polled 1,033,695, while his challenger Abba Yusuf of the PDP scored 1,024,713 votes.

    He said that 2,268,305 of the 5,426,989 registered were accredited. The valid votes cast stood at 2,199,535 and 50,861 were rejected. Those who cast their ballot were 2,242,396.

    He added that the APC candidate defeated his opponent with 8,982 votes.

    According to Shehu, the winner was declared after the collation of results from all the 28 affected Local government areas where the supplementary elections held on Saturday.

    He said: “That Abdullahi Umar Ganduje having satisfied the requirement of the law, has scored the highest votes, is hereby declared winner and returned elected.”

    The collation officer said that the governorship election was earlier declared inconclusive following the high number of cancellation of votes as a result of violence and over voting.

    According to him, the total number of votes cancelled during March 9 election was more that the margin between the PDP candidate, who was leading with 26,000 votes and that of the APC candidate.

    Yusuf was earlier declared to have 1,014,474, against the APC candidate Gov Ganduje who garned 987,819 votes.

    The votes cancelled during the first ballot were 128,572 and the collation officer said the electoral act stipulates that such election must be declared inconclusive.

    The PDP agent, who is also the party chairman in the state, Suleiman Rabiu Bichi frowned at the conduct and rejected the entire supplementary election process, especially that of Gama in Nassarawa Local Government Area.

    His APC counterpart, Abdullahi Abbas, described the election as another landmark victory for the APC, adding that the era of politicking is over.

    “Our doors are wide open to embrace the PDP for a better governance”, the APC chair said,

  • INEC declares Ganduje winner of Kano governorship election

    INEC declares Ganduje winner of Kano governorship election

    Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje has been declared winner of the governorship election in Kano State by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

    With this development, Ganduje has won re-election for another four years in office.

    INEC’s Returning Officer, Bello Shehu said that Ganduje, having polled the majority of votes is declared elected.

    In the announcement by Shehu, Ganduje polled 1,033,695 votes to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate, Abba Yusuf, who polled 1,024,713 votes.

    INEC had declared the governorship election held on March 9 inconclusive and a supplementary election fixed for March 23.

    In the March 9 election, Yusuf had polled 1,014,474 votes to beat Ganduje who got 987,819 votes, leaving a difference of 26,655, but a rerun was scheduled.

    In the supplementary election announced by Shehu earlier, Ganduje polled 45,876 votes to beat Yusuf, who scored 10,239 votes.

  • #KanoRerun: APC’s Ganduje regains marginal lead in tight race

    #KanoRerun: APC’s Ganduje regains marginal lead in tight race

    Results of the Kano supplementary election from 26 local government areas so far collated indicated that the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) scored 34,969 votes while the main opposition party the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polls 6,602.

    The difference at the moment stance at 28,367 votes against the previous PDP’s 26,655 as the difference of 1,712 votes stand out as APC votes.

    At the time of filing in this report, two local government areas, Gama ward in Nassarawa and Kibiya local government areas are still being awaited.

    The INEC collation officer for the Kano rerun election, Professor Bello Shehu is expected to announce the final results for the two awaited local government areas in due course and subsequently declare the winner.

  • Supplementary poll: Ganduje maintains early lead in Kano

    Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State was leading his main challenger, Abba Yusuf of the Peoples Democratic Party, in Saturday’s supplementary governorship election in the state.

    The results of eight out of the 28 local government areas where the election took place showed that Ganduje of the All Progressives Congress had polled 6,473 votes while his opponent scored 970 votes as of 10pm.

    In the March 9 poll declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission, the APC polled 987, 819 votes while the PDP had 1,014, 474 votes.

    While the collation of votes was ongoing, a representative of the PDP raised an objection, describing the poll process as a disservice to democracy.

    He asked if there were separate rules for different parties because the Returning Officer cancelled some votes based on the violence that marred voting in the areas where the results came from.

    Details of results are as follows: Bichi LGA – APC: 1,969, PDP: 39; Bebeji LGA -APC: 205, PDP: 0; Rogo LGA – APC: 1,033, PDP: 162; Karaye LGA – APC: 1,317, PDP: 27; Rimin Gado LGA – APC: 1,463, PDP: 12; LGA: Warawa- APC: 501, PDP: 152; Rano LGA – APC: 2,337, PDP: 37;

    Dambatta LGA – APC: 608, PDP:24; Takai LGA – APC: 4,221, PDP: 149; Albasu LGA – APC: 1,804, PDP: 66; Gabasawa LGA – APC: 728, PDP: 329; Minjibir LGA – APC: 2,414, PDP: 226; Wurno LGA – APC: 904, PDP: 609.

    Meanwhile the PDP in the state has called for a total cancellation of the supplementary poll alleging massive intimidation, rigging and violence against its supporters.

  • I have no confidence in Kano police boss – Gov Ganduje

    I have no confidence in Kano police boss – Gov Ganduje

    Kano state governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has accused the Commissioner of Police Muhammed Wakili for being politically partial.

    Governor Ganduje slammed the Commissioner in an interview with BBC Hausa Service.

    “I didn’t know him before now but the way he does his job is questionable. He has taken and favoured a particular political side, which is uncalled for and translates to mishandling his job”

    Ganduje added that the Commissioner has no constitutional right to arrest either the governor or his deputy as he did “which is an indication of lack of professionalism from the side of the Commissioner.”

    On March 11, the Nigeria Police in Kano arrested the Deputy Governor, Nasiru Gawuna and the State Commissioner for Local Government, Alhaji Sule Garo over alleged threat to public peace.

    The deputy governor enjoys immunity from arrest, according to the Nigerian constitution.

    The Police later clarified that the deputy governor was saved from being manhandled by supporters of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party candidate, at the collation centre.

  • Kano: Ganduje’s aide resigns, joins Kwankwaso in PDP nine days to supplementary poll

    Hashim Dungurawa, the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State on Wednesday tendered his resignation

    He tendered his resignation to the secretary to the governor’s office, Usman Alhaji, but did not state any reason for the resignation in the letter.

    “I am writing this letter to formally inform you of my resignation from the office of the SSA Voluntarily, and I thank you for the opportunity given me to serve under your office as SSA,” the politician wrote.

    Dungurawa would later tell journalists he was defecting to the camp of Rabiu Kwankwaso, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader in Kano.

    Recall that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Kano, Abba Yusuf, was ahead of Ganduje of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) before last Saturday’s election was declared inconclusive.

    Yusuf was leading with about 26,000 votes which were less than the about 128,559 cancelled votes in the state.

    A supplementary election will now hold in the affected polling units in Kano on March 23, same as in five other states.

    Speaking to journalists on Thursday, Dungurawa told journalists in Kano that he is joining PDP, saying even the incumbent governor Ganduje was Kwankwaso’s disciple.

    The Kano governor was the deputy to Kwankwaso when the latter was Kano governor. They fell out after Ganduje became the governor of Kano in 2015.

     

  • Kano guber: Police ‘arrest’ Ganduje’s deputy, Commissioner

    The Kano State Police Command have taken the state deputy Governor, Nasiru Gawuna and the State Commissioner for Local Government, Alhaji Sule Garo into custody over alleged threat to public peace.

    The two were arrested for alleged disruption of the Collation of results of the Governorship Elections at the Nasarawa Local Government area Collation Centre.

    It was gathered that the two were saved from being manhandled by supporters of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party candidate, at the Centre.

    The incident which took place at about 2:00 am was said to be responsible for the delay in releasing the final tally of the Kano State governorship race which is likely to decide the winner of the elections..

    Details later.