- PDP wins 8 seats, NNPP sacks APC in Kano
- No win recorded yet for Labour Party
- Adamawa, Kebbi still inconclusive
- Collation suspended in Abia, Enugu
Nigeria’s leading political parties, the All Progressives Congress and the People’s Democratic Party, have secured the majority victory in the March 18 governorship elections, according to the results so far released by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Elections were conducted in 28 of Nigeria’s 36 states to bring to an end this year’s election cycle, which began with the presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25.
So far, the ruling APC, which produced Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, a former Governor of Lagos State, as the president-elect in last month’s election, has secured victory in 15 states, the main opposition party, the PDP, won eight states, while the New Nigeria Peoples Party sacked the APC in Kano State.
The Labour Party has yet to win any state.
As of the time of filing this report, the ruling APC had seven re-elected governors – Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq (Kwara), Inuwa Yahaya (Gombe), Mai Mala Muni (Yobe), Abdullahi Sule (Nasarawa), Babagana Zulum (Borno).
The party also secured wins for eight new candidates – Umar Namadi (Jigawa), Ahmed Aliyu (Sokoto), Dikko Radda (Katsina), Uba Sani (Kaduna), Bassey Otu (Cross River), Mohammed Bago (Niger), Hyacinth Alia (Benue) and Francis Nwifuru (Ebonyi).
On the other hand, the PDP had two re-elected governors – Seyi Makinde (Oyo) and Bala Mohammed (Bauchi).
Six first-term governors were also elected on the platform of the opposition party.
They are Umo Eno (Akwa Ibom), Siminialayi Fubara (Rivers), Kefas Agbu (Taraba), Caleb Mutfwang (Plateau), and Sheriff Oborevwori (Delta).
In a historic win, PDP’s Dauda Lawal unseated Zamfara State Governor and APC powerbroker, Bello Matawalle.
In a similar fashion, Abba Kabir of the New Nigeria People’s Party sacked the APC in Kano State.
The elections in Kebbi and Adamawa States were declared inconclusive by the electoral body while the collation of the results of governorship polls in Abia and Enugu was suspended.
In Adamawa, the inconclusive election result showed that the contest is between APC’s Aishatu Dahiru famously known as Binani who scored 390, 275 and the incumbent, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of the PDP, who polled 421,524, completely ruling out the Labour Party.
The INEC state collation officer, Muhammadu Mele of the University of Maiduguri, declared the election inconclusive, owing to the margin of votes.
“Elections were not held in 47 wards, affecting 69 polling units. So, this gives us a margin of 31,249. The total number of PVCs collected in places where elections were not held amounted to 37,016,” he said.
Mele said the election was declared inconclusive based on these findings and analysis as stated in the electoral laws, “where the margin between two candidates is lesser than the total number of collected PVCs in areas where elections were not held”.
In Kebbi State where Saturday’s election was also declared inconclusive, the race is between the PDP and the APC.
INEC’s Returning Officer, Yusuf Sa’idu, declared the election inconclusive because there were breaches of electoral laws that led to cancellations of results in polling units within 20 of the 21 LGAs.
Before declaring the election inconclusive, APC was leading the polls with 388,258 votes, as against 342,980 votes polled by the PDP, again ruling out the LP.
The electoral umpire is expected to take a decision on both Adamawa and Kebbi.
Abia and Enugu States are strongholds of Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, also in the South East geopolitical zone.
For the presidential election three weeks ago, Obi got a whopping 327,095 votes in Abia, far ahead of the APC candidate, Bola Tinubu, who polled 8,914, and PDP’s Atiku Abubakar, who got 22,676. In Enugu, Obi swept 428,640 votes, far ahead of the APC with 4,772 votes and the PDP with 15,749 votes.
Many Nigerians had expected a similar voting trend and incontestable victories for the March 18 governorship elections in Enugu and Abia states but this has not been so.
On Monday, while the collation of results was ongoing in Abia and Enugu, INEC spokesman, Festus Okoye, announced the suspension of the process in the two South East states.
Okoye said, “The Commission met today, Monday 20th March 2023 and reviewed the conduct of the Governorship and State Assembly elections held nationwide on Saturday 18th March 2023. Arising from the meeting, the Commission took the decision to suspend forthwith further collation of the Governorship election results in some parts of Abia and Enugu States.
“It will be recalled that our office in Obingwa Local Government Area was invaded by thugs yesterday Sunday 19th March 2023 and our officials were held hostage in relation to the collation of results from the Local Government Area. Similarly, reports from Enugu State call for a review of the results of the Governorship election from the two outstanding Local Government Areas of Nsukka and Nkanu East.
“Consequently, the Commission hereby suspends the collation of results in Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State and the two outstanding Local Government Areas of Enugu State which are yet to be collated. A review will be undertaken immediately before the process is concluded.”
Before the suspension of collation, Alex Otti of the Labour Party already won 10 of the 17 local governments areas in the state ahead of APC’s Ikechi Emenike, PDP’s Okey Ahiwe and Enyinnaya Nwafor of the Young People’s Party who are all in the race to succeed the incumbent governor and PDP G5 member, Okezie Ikpeazu, whose two terms of eight years end on May 29, 2023.
Before the suspension of the collation by INEC in Enugu where there are also 17 local government areas, LP’s Chijioke Edeoga and PDP’s Mbah Ndubuisi were far ahead of the other candidates like Frank Nweke (Jnr) of the All Progressives Grand Alliance in Enugu State, and APC’s Uche Nnaji who are all in the race to succeed the incumbent governor and another PDP G5 member, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi whose two terms of eight years end on May 29, 2023.
Information gathered suggested that the review panel are currently in Abuja and hopefully will return later to complete the exercise in Abia and Enugu.
INEC denies falsifying Abia poll result
Meanwhile INEC has debunked a report accusing its Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, of attempts to distort the governorship election results in Abia State.
A portal, Strenuous Blog, had quoted the Returning Officer for Abia, Nnenna Oti, as alleging that she was being forced to do the wrong thing.
The portal stated, “The INEC Presiding Officer Abia State, Nnenna Oti had this to say…’I’m Professor Nnenna Oti from Afikpo. I am the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Owerri. The people’s mandate shall stand. I have spent all my adult life in pursuit of the ideals of good governance. We shall stand by these principles. The pastor in me (she is a Pastor with the RCCG) and the mother in me will not permit me to do anything that will adversely affect the future of our children. I shall do right by God and by man!’
“Then to the shock and surprise of everyone in the hall, she said that the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, personally called her and gave her directives on guidelines to follow in ensuring that Abia governorship election results were collated based on some criteria but that on her own she had decided that the will of Abia voters would not be subverted under her watch.
“At that point, she asked the Administrative Secretary to read the message she said that came from the INEC headquarters Abuja.”
Responding, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, in a statement on Tuesday, said the only communication sent to the state Returning Officer was the commission’s directive suspending further collation of results.
Oyekanmi explained, “The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu never called the Returning Officer to give her a directive. Rather, the Returning Officer wanted the official communication on the Commission’s decision to suspend the collation of results in Abia State.
“The Chairman then directed that pending the delivery of the hard copies, the soft copies of the Commission’s letter be forwarded immediately to the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Enugu State and the Administrative Secretary of Abia State.
“The Returning Officer for Abia State then directed that the content of the letter should be read aloud by the Administrative Secretary in the presence of agents of political parties, observers, the media and security personnel at the Collation Centre.
“This is what is now being mischievously interpreted as a directive to the Returning Officer on some phantom criteria at variance with the approved guidelines. There is nothing like that.
“In fact, the content of the letter is basically the same as the Commission’s Press Release dated Monday 20th March 2023 which has since been uploaded to the Commission’s social media platforms and is already in the public domain.
“The public should disregard the story as fake news.”
More than 20 aspirants jostle for APC governorship tickets in Bayelsa, Imo, Kogi
In another development, more than 20 governorship aspirants are to appear before the screening committee of the APC in a bid to participate in the party’s gubernatorial primary for the off-session elections in the three states of Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi.
Also, at its meeting last week, the National Working Committee of the party adjusted the timetable and shifted the primary elections from April 10 to 14, 2023, investigation by The Point has shown.
It was learnt that the party’s NWC took the decision after it became apparent that the earlier date falls on Easter Monday, thus necessitating the shift.
The country’s electoral umpire had fixed the governorship elections in the three states for November 11, 2023.
The screening exercise will commence today, Wednesday and run through Sunday at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.
Already, the PDP has begun the screening of its aspirants in Abuja.
The Governor of Bayelsa State, Duoye Diri, was screened and cleared on Tuesday as the sole aspirant for Bayelsa State.
Investigation also showed that Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, will enjoy the same type of privilege Governor Diri enjoyed in Bayelsa as he is the only aspirant that picked the party’s governorship expression of interest and nomination forms for the party’s ticket ahead of the November 11, Imo State governorship election.
Six aspirants picked and submitted expression of interest and nomination forms in Bayelsa State.
They include the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipreye Sylva, who will be slugging it out for the party’s ticket with his former godson and 2019 governor-elect, David Pereworimini Lyon.
Others are Ogbomade Isikima Johnson, Ongoebi Etebu Maureen, Festus Daumiebi Sunday and Joshua Maciver.
