The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has emerged as the winner of last Saturday’s presidential election in Kaduna State, as well as Sokoto State.
Results declared for Kaduna by Muhammad Zayyan Umar, the returning officer, showed that Atiku polled 554,360 ahead of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who scored 399,293 to come second.
The Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, came third in the state’s result with 294,494 votes.
Recall that Kaduna is an APC-governed state led by governor Nasir El-Rufai. The APC chieftain, however, could not deliver his state to the party’s presidential candidate.
However, as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Obi won in seven Local Government Areas of Chikun, Kaura, Kajuru, Jaba, Kachia, Jema’a and Zango-Kataf, while Tinubu won in troubled Birnin-Gwari as well as Sanga Local Government Area (LGA), the home country of the State Deputy Governor, Hadiza Balarabe.
Atiku, however, swept the votes in 14 LGAs, including Giwa, Kauru, Lere, Ikara, Kagarko, Zaria, Sabon-Gari, Makarfi, and Kaduna South, Kudan, Igabi, Kaduna North, Kubau and Soba.
Also in Sokoto State, the former vice president defeated his opponents to win the elections with a total of 288,679 votes.
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He was keenly followed by Tinubu, who scored a total number of 285,444 votes, while candidates of the Labour Party, Peter Obi and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, came third and fourth with a total of 6,568 and 1,300 votes respectively.
Announcing the results on Tuesday, the returning officer for the presidential election in the State, Kabiru Bala who is the Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, invited party representatives to sign the results.
Responding, the Director General of the PDP campaign committee, Yusuf Suleiman, called on INEC to look into the issue of more than 400 polling units cancelled in the State.
He said about 300,000 voters in the state have been disenfranchised and that their votes could go for either of the political parties including APC, PDP, LP or even the NNPP.
Similarly, the Director General of the APC presidential campaign council, Maigari Dingyadi, said politicians should not quote figures without recourse to INEC.
Dingyadi who is also the Minister for Police Affairs, further urged INEC to look into the circumstances that led to the cancellation of the results.
Meanwhile, Bala disclosed that a total number of 133 registration areas were affected with 471 polling units in the cancellation.
He further explained that the affected areas also include 301,499 registered voters with 254,902 Permanent Voter Cards collected.
