Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje has clawed back from the jaw of death to win re-election in Kano State, overcoming the main challenger, Abba Kabir-Yusuf of the Peoples Democratic Party by 8982 votes, after the supplementary elections held on Saturday.

According to the result announced by the returning officer, Ganduje of the All Progressives Congress polled 1,033,695 votes while Kabir-Yusuf got 1,024,713 votes.

The PDP agent reportedly walked out of the collation centre before the announcement of the result.

Before the supplementary election, the PDP candidate had 1,014,474 votes, while Ganduje got 987,819 votes.

In the supplementary elections held in polling units in 28 LGAs, Ganduje got an upper-hand,
winning 45,876 votes while the PDP candidate got 10,239 votes.

The Collation Officer in Kano, Prof. Bello Shehu, declared Ganduje the winner having satisfied requirements of the law by scoring the highest number of votes.

According to Shehu, the winner was declared after the collation of result from all the affected 28 local government areas where the supplementary elections was conducted on Saturday March 23.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalled that the governorship election was earlier declared inconclusive following the high number of cancelled votes as a result of violence and over-voting.

According to the collation officer, the total number of votes cancelled during the earlier election which led to the declaration of the poll as inconclusive was more than the margin between the PDP candidate who was leading with 26,000 votes and that of the APC candidate.

NAN recalled that the votes cancelled during the March 9 governorship election was 128,572 votes.

Meanwhile, the PDP Chairman in Kano, Alhaji Suleiman Rabiu Bichi has rejected the entire re-run election, especially that of Gama in Nassarawa Local Government Area.

The PDP Chairman further described the election processes as shameful and called for the immediate cancellation of the exercise.

According to him, the party will not accept the result. It therefore refused to sign it.

Source: NAN

Kano residents believed it was Gods wish that Governor Abdullahi Ganduje was declared re-elected by the Independent National Electoral Commission and have resolved to help him with prayers.

A resident of Rijiyar Zaki quarters in the state, Engr Ahmad Nafiu, said they would remain prayerful that the choice became the best for the State.

He explained that INEC was a professional body that might have gone extra miles to achieve what it did, especially with the nature of the state.

Another resident Malam Musa Abdallah, also said that Muslims were expected to believe in destiny and Gandujes should be considered as one.

He prayed to God to guide the Governor to do the best for the benefit of the state.

Women were also not left out as Malama Amina Muhammed, a housewife said that though she was neutral about who would win the elections, that there was need to pray for Ganduje now that he had emerged victorious.

She enjoined all residents including the opposition to support the administration in order to build Kano.

Amina said that side talks at this moment will not change the situation. Whatever God wills, will surely come to pass so lets not loose our belief.

NAN reports that on Sunday evening in Kano, INEC declared Governor Abdullahi Ganduje as the winner of the supplementary guber elections in Kano.

The governorship election which was held two weeks ago was declared inconclusive by the INEC due to irregularities.

Source: NAN

The re-elected governor of Kano State, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje , has thanked the people for re-electing him for a second term and promised to run an all-inclusive government and carry everyone along.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday declared Ganduje, winner of the Kano State governorship supplementary election held Saturday.

In the supplementary election held in 28 out of the 44 local government areas in the state, Ganduje won by scoring 45,876 votes to the PDP Abba Yusufs 10,239.

The State Returning Officer, Prof. Bello Shehu, announced that Ganduje scored a total vote of 1,033,695 while Yusuf polled 1,024,713.

In his re-election speech on Sunday night in Kano, the governor called on everyone to join hands with him to build the state.

The governor thanked the people for their belief in his capacity to lead them and for the peaceful conduct of the March 23 re-run election.

The governor also promised not to fail the electorate and that he would consolidate on his achievements and also embark on people-oriented projects.

We are going to complete all projects and initiate new ones and also open to new ideas and new vision, he said.

The governor who thank God for the victory urged the people, irrespective of their political inclinations, to join hands to move Kano forward.

I thank all who voted me, those that did not vote me and those who did not vote at all.

Girl child education, agriculture, women and youth empowerment, healthcare delivery, peace and security will be my focus in the next four years.

I thank you for the fresh mandate and I promise to serve you better because the victory is not for me or my deputy, the victory is for the good people of Kano.

As we get ready to start our second term, I urge you to continue to maintain the peace we have so far enjoyed, he said.

He commended INEC for their professionalism and also thanked the electorate for re-electing President Muhammadu Buhari.(NAN)

Source: NAN

By Muhammad Nur Tijani

Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State has thanked God and the people of the state for re-electing him for a second term.

NAN reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday declared Ganduje, winner of the Kano State governorship supplementary election held Saturday.

In the supplementary election held in 28 out of the 44 local government areas in the state, Ganduje won by scoring 45,876 votes to the PDP Abba Yusufs 10,239.

State Returning Officer Prof. Bello Shehu, announced that Ganduje scored a total vote of 1,033,695 while Mr Yusuf polled 1,024,713.

He also said that he would run an all inclusive government that will carry everyone along in the administration of the state.

The governor thanked the people for their belief in his capacity to lead them and for the peaceful conduct of the March 23 re-run election.

The governor also promised not to fail the electorate.

He said he would consolidate on his achievement and also embark on people oriented projects.

We are going to complete all projects and initiate new ones and we are also open to new ideas and new vision, he said.

The governor who thanked God for the dramatic victory urged the people of the state, irrespective of their political inclination, to join hands with him to move Kano forward.

I thank all who voted me, those that did not vote me and and those who did not vote at all.

Girl child education, agriculture, women and youth empowerment, healthcare delivery, peace and security will be my focus in the next four years.

I thank you for the fresh mandate and I promise to serve you better because the victory is not for me or my deputy, the victory is for the good people of Kano.

As we get ready to start our second term, I urge you to continue to maintain the peace we have so far enjoyed, he said.

He commended INEC for their professionalism and also thanked the electorate in the state for re-electing President Muhammadu Buhari.

Source: NAN

The Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit challenging the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to resume collation of results in Bauchi governorship election.

Mohammed Abubakar, incumbent governor and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had challenged INECs decision.

More to follow..

Source: NAN

The Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress President-elect has formally lodged a complaint against the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate for criminally hacking into the server of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The complaint lodged in a letter today to the Acting Inspector General of Police and the Director General of the Department of State Services, followed the citing of alleged election results contained in the server in the petition filed by Abubakar Atiku and the PDP against the election of President Buhari.

Atiku claimed he was the winner of the election and that he got 1.6million more votes than President Buhari.

The complaint signed by Festus Keyamo, the Buhari campaign spokesman, urged the police and the DSS to invite, interrogate and investigate the PDP leaders over their admittance of illegal access to the INEC server.

The letter said the figures being quoted by the PDP were the fake voting figures posted on the server before the postponement of the presidential election on 16 February.

The only conclusion one can draw from the above is that the PDP had prepared those results which were to be smuggled into the INEC Server. However, the sudden postponement of the election scuttled that evil plan, but it was too late to restrain the release of the fake results, the letter read.

The full letter

Monday, March 25, 2019

1.      The Inspector-General of Police,
   

Police Force Headquarters,

Louis Edet House,

Abuja.

2.      The Director-General,
   

Department of State Services,

Aso Drive,

Abuja.

Dear sirs,

PETITION TO INVITE, INTERROGATE AND INVESTIGATE THE PDP LEADERSHIP OVER ITS ADMITTANCE OF ILLEGAL ACCESS TO INECS SERVER

BACKGROUND

1.It would be recalled that an Electoral (Amendment) Bill containing the provision for electronic transmission of results to INECs central computer system (otherwise called server) was sent to President Muhammadu Buhari by the National Assembly for assent late in the year 2018.

2.Despite the shortness of time before the Presidential/National Assembly Elections, and the lack of time to first simulate the process to ensure its effectiveness in a country like ours with problems of effective networks in many rural areas and constant failure of technological devices, together with its violation of the time frame of such laws as provided for in regional and continental Protocols in terms of the length of time required for the passage of such laws before any major election, the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party was hell-bent that the President should sign the Bill into law. That was the first indication that the main opposition was up to something sinister regarding the electronic transmission of the results.

3.Upon the last-minute postponement of the February 16, 2019 Presidential/National Assembly Elections, the nation was shocked to see already prepared presidential elections results floating around in the cyber space just less than 24 hours after the postponed election was originally billed to hold! The fake results had details of the scores of the candidates of the major parties. Of course, the fake results gave victory to the candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, even when elections did not hold.

4.The only conclusion one can draw from the above is that the PDP had prepared those results which were to be smuggled into the INEC Server. However, the sudden postponement of the election scuttled that evil plan, but it was too late to restrain the release of the fake results.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

5.The proper elections were held on February 23, 2019 and President Muhammadu Buhari declared the winner. Despite the approval of the elections as credible by nearly all local and international observers (except some few known PDP acolytes masquerading as local observers), the PDP cried foul and made a shocking claim: it claimed that from purported results it obtained from INECs server, it has so-called proof that its candidate won the election by about 1.6million votes!

6.Shockingly and coincidentally, this margin was about the same margin by which it also purportedly won by the fake results released just hours after the postponement of the February 16, 2019 Presidential/National Assembly Elections.

7.As if this expensive joke was not enough, the PDP and its Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, have gone ahead to file an Election Petition against the clear victory of President Muhammadu Buhari and have repeated the same outlandish claim of having access to INECs server which shows that they have some purported results at their disposal giving victory to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

8.Sirs, we wish you to note that INECs server is the back end of electronic records of INEC. This is not INECs website but its server! Although, the purported results have been conclusively shown by public engagements to be false and even ridiculous, especially as the total number of accredited voters is exactly equivalent to the purported votes of the APC and PDP candidates, this criminal claim of the PDP has revealed a few things:

(a)It is now clear that some criminally-minded PDP operatives have access to the INEC server to be able to smuggle in fake results into that server.

(b)The only means by which they could have access to the INEC server is by the criminal hacking of the server or through the criminal conspiracy of some INEC officials.

PRAYERS

The APC Presidential Campaign Council hereby prays that the Inspector-General of Police and the Director-General of the Department of State Services use your good offices to investigate the hacking of and/or illegal tampering with the INEC server by the PDP. The leadership of the PDP must be invited, interrogated and investigated and those identified as perpetrators must be arrested and prosecuted.

Opposition is healthy in a democracy but it is not a license for criminality and illegality. A country governed by laws cannot be blackmailed or cowed into indolence by the perceived underdog status of the opposition so as to condone such a blatant criminal claim by the PDP of having illegal access to INECs server.

We trust you will act with alacrity.

Thank you.

FESTUS KEYAMO, SAN, FCIArb (UK)

Director, Strategic Communications,

APC Presidential Campaign Council,

(Official Spokesperson).

Source: NAN

Senator Bala Mohammed of the Peoples Democratic Party has emerged the new Governor of Bauchi state, polling 515,113 votes to defeat the incumbent Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar of the All Progressives Congress APC who scored 500,625 votes.

Bala won with 14,488 votes in another tight governorship race. Sokoto and Kano governorship races were similarly close.

News Agency of Nigeria reports that the governorship election in the state had earlier been ruled as inconclusive by INEC and March 23 fixed for re-rerun poll in Tafawa Balewa local government area and some polling units in some other local government areas of the State.

INEC later reversed itself as it ordered the collation of the results. This followed a fact-finding report by a panel led by an INEC commissioner Festus Okoye.

But Governor Abubakar challenged INECs volte-face in an Abuja High court.

The court initially ruled to stall INECs action, but on Monday, the court gave INEC the go-ahead to conclude the collation.

The Returning officer Professor Mohammed Kyari declared Bala Mohammed, a former senator and minister of the Federal Capital Territory as the winner of the election on Monday night.

Bala Mohammed having scored the highest votes and satisfied all the requirements of the law is hereby declared Winner of the Governorship election in the state, he said.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi appealed to politicians to take defeat in good faith

In any contest there will be a winner and a loser. He urged the politicians not to gloat in victory.

But the advice was not heeded by supporters of Bala Mohammed, who turned the celebration of the victory into a carnival, as they took over the popular Ahmadu Bello Way, singing Sai Kaura, drumming, blowing flutes, trumpets and saxophones and dancing to the tunes of a variety of music. Motor-cyclists joined in the revelry with acrobatic displays.

Mrs Aisha Usman said God has answered the citizens prayers.

We are celebrating the outcome of the results of the election as INEC finally declared the man of the people, Sen. Bala Muhammed the winner of the governorship race.

This is what we have been praying for and God has answered the cry of the masses, she said.

Mrs Abigail Haruna, who also joined the celebration, said the governor-elect was a good man with a high spirit of patriotism.

She said the people believed that the new governor would take care of them.

I am very happy that I am witnessing today that the change we wanted is actualised, said Mr. Ismail Raji, another Bauchi resident.

I thank God that the final result favoured the Peoples Democratic Party and Senator Bala Muhammed in particular. Bala Muhammed is the change we wanted in Bauchi state, Raji said.

Source: NAN

The All Progressives Congress (APC) chairman, Adams Oshiomhole has insisted that the governing party with majority of senators and members-elect in the 9th National Assembly would not allow the opposition to hijack strategic committees.

Oshiomhole stated this at a dinner hosted by President Muhammadu Buhari for all the partys Senators, Senators-elect and some APC state governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Monday.

The APC chairman disclosed that the essence of the dinner was to plan on how to manage the leadership of the National Assembly to ensure that there would be no business with the opposition this time around.

He revealed that the party, with about 65 Senators-elect and 223 House of Representatives members-elect out of the 360, is in the position to make and take decisions without necessarily seeking the support of the opposition at the national assembly.

He mocked the 15 out of the 16 APC Senators that defected to other parties saying that Nigerians punished them, noting that, the one that God left was for him to entertain the house, apparently making reference to Sen. Dino Melaye.

We are far ahead of the main opposition in the parliament. 223 out of 360. We have all the numbers required to make all the laws in the National Assembly.

Only one out of 16 APC senators that decamped won election. It is the way God wants to punish them for us.

Nigerians have decided to bless us with huge majority in the National Assembly because they want a vibrant government.

God has given us the numbers to support your change government so that Nigerians especially the poor can benefit.

We need to look inward and learn the right lesson from what happened in 2015. This time around, the strategic committees which were in the hands of opposition, we will ensure our members take charge.

To do so, we thought it is important to sit down with you as our father (President Buhari) to discuss how the leadership of the National Assembly will emerge.

The purpose is to congratulate you and to provide a platform for the senators-elect to interact with you.

On Ifeanyi Ubah, who was among the senators-elect at the dinner, Oshiomhole described him as a smart politician for joining the APC.

Ubah was elected as senator on Feb. 23 under the platform of the Young Progressive Party before announcing his defection to APC recently.

Those in attendance included the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, governors of Kogi, Jigawa, Oyo, Kaduna, Kebbi, Zamfara, Borno, Yobe, Plateau, Osun and Lagos states.

The Senators-elect at the event included all those who had directly or indirectly indicated interest to contest for the seat of President of the Senate in the 9th National Assembly.

Prominent among the prospective contestants for the Senate leadership are Ahmed Lawan, Danjuma Goje and Ali Ndume, all from Northeast zone of the country and Abdullahi Adamu from the North Central zone.

Source: NAN

By Tukur Muntari

Forty-two political parties in Kano under the aegis of Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) in the state have rejected the results of the re-run governorship election of March 23.

They alledged that the process was characterised by gross irregularities.

The state CUPP chairman, Mohammed Abdullahi-Rahi, made the position of the group known while addressing a news conference in Kano on Tuesday.

He alleged that the supplementary election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was marred by violence, over voting, intimidation and voter disenfranchasement.

According to him, thuggery and voter-intimidation were reported in almost all the polling units where the re-run election wasconducted, with reports of loss of lives, open vote-buying and other electoral malpractices.

It was clear that the level of violence recorded during the March 9 election that led to cancellation of results of some polling units is by far less than what was recorded during the March 23 election, yet the electoral body turned a blind eye on the happenings by accepting and announcing the results.

We are at this juncture, debunking the illegitimate declaration of Abdullahi Umar Ganduje as governor-elect in the just concluded March 23 re-run elections in Kano due to gross irregularities and electoral fraud committed before, during and after the elections.

Source: NAN

Sen. Bola Tinubu, an All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, says his moral authority plays a role in his ability to influence elections.

He also said that other tools that helped him influence elections were his skills as a veteran politician and dedication to campaigning and mobilizing his own party members.

Tinubu said this on Friday in Lagos while responding to an advertorial in the media, alleging that he met with the INEC Chairman to influence the Sokoto State governorship rerun election in favour of the APC.

Our attention has been drawn to a partisan advertorial in the March 21 edition of Daily Trust, entitled Inconclusive Gubernatorial Election: Sokoto People Warn Tinubu, Oshiomole, Yari, Bagudu and others.

The advertorial, placed by an organisation called the Sokoto State Coalition of PDP Supporters, bears the logo of PDP National Youth League and is signed by one Engr. Haruna Usman Shagari.

The advert made baseless allegations against myself, Comrade Adams Oshiomole, Chairman of APC, Sen. Adamu Aliero and Gov. AbdulAziz Yari of Zamfara.

It falsely alleges that I, along with the others, met the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu in order to influence the Sokoto State gubernatorial rerun election in favour of the APC.

These allegations by a contrived PDP organ are desperate untruths without a basis in fact. But they are entirely in line with the delusional reactions of PDP to their loss in the presidential elections, he said.

Tinubu said that he had Always been at the forefront of the struggle for electoral reform which culminated in the establishment of the Uwais Commission by late President Umaru Yaradua.

A prominent member of that panel, Prof Attahiru Jega later became the INEC Chairman and was able to implement the far-reaching reforms that have enabled us to have the free and fair elections that we witnessed in 2015 and now in 2019.

If I were such a prominent supporter of electoral reforms, why wilI I now be among those trying to subvert democracy?

My only tools for influencing elections are my moral authority, my skills as a veteran politician, and dedication to campaigning and mobilising my own party members, he said.

Tinubu urged the PDP in Sokoto state to desist from using his name to defraud the people or as a way to gain sympathy.

With respect to Sokoto, former Gov. Aliyu Wamakko is a popular figure and leader who has the respect of the people of the state.

It is also clear that the APC candidate is more qualified and more committed to the welfare of the people than his PDP opponent.

By his panicked responses, Gov. Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State has shown his sheer desperation, fears that his political career is crumbling. If he loses this election, he has lost everything.

Thus there is no untruth he will not tell and no tactic too extreme in order to hold on to his seat. However, he should not use my name to defraud the people or as a way to gain sympathy.

Instead, Tambuwal should face the consequences of his own actions. It is Tambuwal, who has caused his own predicament. The people know that Tambuwal has sacrificed their interests to advance his own.

He can try whatever propaganda and untruths he wants, but in the end, the people will render the verdict that his selfish and unproductive record deserves, tinubu said.

Source: NAN