Stephen Adewale
The governorship election held in Sokoto State on Saturday
has been declared inconclusive.
Announcing the result of the election around 2:55 Monday
morning, Fatima Mukhtar, the INEC returning officer, said the number of valid
votes were 987, 942, rejected votes was given as 30,082 while the total vote
cast was given 1, 019,024.
Mrs Mukhtar, the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University,
Dutse, said the number of registered voters was 1,887, 767 while the number of
accredited voters was 1, 033,081.
The result showed that the Sokoto state governor and
candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Aminu Tambuwal, polled 489,558 votes
while Aliyu Ahmad of the All Progressives Congress, APC polled 486,145; the PPA
polled 1,353 votes.
The margin of win between the two leading parties, APC and
PDP, was given as 3, 413.Similarly, the number of cancelled votes exceeded the margin
between both parties. This, the INEC official said, necessitated the need to
declare the election inconclusive.
The commission said there were cancellations in 22 LGAs and
136 polling units with accredited voters of 75, 403.It will conduct a supplementary election as required by law.
“I cannot declare winner in this election and INEC will
decide on this later,” Mrs Mukhtar said.
