The All Progressive Congress in Sokoto State has rejected the results of the governorship election.
Similarly, the Chairman, APC Governorship Campaign Council, Alhaji Maigari Dingyadi, denied that Senator Aliyu Wamakko and the APC candidate, Alhaji Ahmed Aliyu, had called Tambuwal and congratulated him on his victory.
Dingyadi described such news as being circulated in the social media as malicious and false.
The state Publicity Secretary of the party, Sambo Danchadi, said, “The so-called winning margin of 342 votes is far less than the number of the registered voters in the polling units where elections were not held, which is in contravention of the electoral law.
INEC declares Ortom winner in Benue
Also, the Benue State governorship Returning Officer, Mr Sebastine Maimako, declared Ortom as the winner of the governorship election.
He said Ortom polled 434,473 votes to defeat his closest opponent, Mr Emmanuel Jime, the APC candidate, who scored 345,155 votes.
Ortom had during the governorship election on March 9, polled 410,576 votes as against Jime’s 329,022.
According to the supplementary election results, Ortom polled 23,897 votes while Jime got 16,133 votes.
Maimako said, “Number of total registered voters is 2,471,894 while accredited voters are 858,947, number of valid votes is 830,954, rejected votes, 15,268 and the number of total votes cast is 846,222.
“Ortom scored 434,473 votes while Jime scored 345,155 votes. That Samuel Ortom of the PDP, having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected.”
I’ll recover my stolen mandate, says Jime
But Jime said he would “recover my stolen mandate” insisting that Ortom’s victory could not stand legal scrutiny.
Jime in a statement by the Secretary of his campaign organisation, Prof. Eugene Aliegba, said Ortom’s victory was a direct product of violence and vote-buying, which he said, would not be allowed to stand.
Jime said, “And because the results announced in favour of Governor Ortom and the PDP are a direct product of brutal violence, vote-buying, ballot-stuffing, result-falsification, non-usage of the card reader and a range of other irregularities that have no place in our electoral laws, we are making it unequivocally clear that the Benue APC will explore all constitutional and legal options available to ensure the votes of the people count.
“In simple terms, we will make a case before the Election Petitions Tribunal to subject the Benue governorship election results to an integrity test.”
APC, PDP supporters disagree as Ganduje wins Kano run-off
Also, Ganduje was on Sunday declared the winner of the governorship election after he garnered 1,033,695 votes to beat the PDP candidate, Mr Abba Yusuf, who scored 1,024,713 votes.
In the result announced by INEC in Kano, Ganduje, who sought re-election for a second term, defeated the PDP candidate, Mr Abba Yusuf.
The PDP alleged that the election, which Ganduje won with 8, 982 margin, was marred by violence, voter intimidation and other malpractices.
In the main election of March 23, Ganduje had scored 987,819 votes and trailed Yusuf, who got 1,014,474 votes at the time.
Yusuf led with over 26,000 votes as of March 23.
However, in the supplementary poll, the governor got additional 45,876 votes to cancel the lead and bring his final tally to 1,033,695.
On his part, Yusuf scored additional 10,239 votes from the supplementary election to bring his overall total 1,024,713.
The declaration was made by the state INEC Returning Officer, Prof. Bello Shehu.
But ahead of the announcement of the final result, the APC and the PDP supporters engaged one another in a shouting match, as they disagreed over the outcome of the rerun poll.
The clash occurred as Shehu collated the results of Nasarawa, a key local government area where 38,181 voters registered in Gama Ward.
The APC won in Gama, the crucial swing ward, by polling 10,536 votes to the PDP’s 3,409 ballots.
But, the PDP members at the collation centre, protested against the figures, insisting that election did not take place in the ward.
They also demanded the cancellation of the entire supplementary election on the grounds that it was marred by violence and other forms of “fraudulent practices.”
The APC members at the collation centre immediately reacted by insisting that the results must stand, a development that fuelled a shouting match between the supporters of the two parties.
A PDP member of the House of Representatives from Dala in Kano, Mr Ali Madaki, led the protest, as he continued to ask Shehu to halt the collation of the results.
Madaki stated, “What happened in Kano was not an election; the fraud did not pass the integrity test. In Gama, and most parts of Kano State, there was no election, rather it was thuggery aided by the state government. What you call an election should be cancelled.
“As I speak, INEC (members of staff) and party agents are fighting over the results of Gama. We have cases where results were written for polling units where nothing took place at all.”
Madaki berated INEC and the university lecturers, who served as electoral officials. He said he could not believe that professors “can cook the lies and fraud you call an election in Kano.”
As he spoke, the APC members reacted, shouting at him to “sit down”, “who are you?”, “go to the tribunal!”
Madaki got the backing of other PDP members, who also shouted back, “There was no election in Kano!” “We need a rerun.” “This fraud will never stand!”
As the shouting match raged, Senator Jibrin Barau, made a case for the APC, asking INEC to ignore the protestations by the PDP members at the venue.
He said, “The election took place peacefully in the state. In Gama, an election took place because I was there and I monitored the process. The election was transparent because all the PDP agents signed the result sheets.
“We all know that this is not the right place to protest the results of an election. The proper thing to do is to go to the tribunal.”
The state Acting Chairman of the PDP, Mr Rabiu Suleiman-Bichi, also joined in the protest.
“I can’t bring myself to accept these results from all the units. There was violence in Gama and we will never accept what you have presented here,” he added.
Amid the protest and shouting match, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Riskuwa Arab-Shehu, appealed to both parties to sheathe their swords.
He urged for calm, advising any aggrieved party to “patiently follow the process through to the end.”
Arab-Shehu noted that the election petitions tribunal was an opening for aggrieved parties to seek redress.
His intervention did not achieve much as some of the PDP members stormed out of the venue, still calling for the cancellation of the election.
Meanwhile, tension built up in Kano as the exercise came to a close about 8.30pm on Sunday.
The police tightened security around INEC headquarters and quickly intensified patrols on major roads in the city centre.
