Voters in Adamawa state are waiting with bated breath for the result of today’s supplementary election in the state to know if they will be having their first elected female governor – or not.
Also being expected is the result of the other supplementary election held today in Kebbi state.
There were no winners in the governorship election in the two states held on March 18, as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the exercise inconclusive following cancelled votes and areas where the exercise could not hold because of violence.
The ICIR reports that Nigerians are very anxious about the outcome of today’s exercise in Adamawa state, particularly, which is between the incumbent governor Ahmadu Fintiri, who runs on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Senator Aishatu Dahiru (Binani) of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
While Fintiri polled 421,524 votes in the March 18 election, Binani had 390,275.
Nigerians are very interested in the election because the country has never witnessed a fierce contest between a male and a female politician for a governorship seat as in the Adamawa election.
That the contest is happening in the North, where few women have been elected into public offices, makes the election more interesting.
In Kebbi, the battle is also between the PDP and the APC.
The ICIR reported how INEC declared the Kebbi state governorship poll inconclusive on March 20 through its returning officer Yusuf Sa’idu, a professor at Danfodio University in Sokoto.
Sa’idu said cancellations occurred across several registration areas (RAs) in various voting districts in 20 of the 21 local government areas in the state.
According to him, the declaration of the election as inconclusive was in line with provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
“Sub-section three of section 51 states that where the result of an election is cancelled in accordance with sub-section two, there shall be no return for the election until another poll has taken place in the affected polling unit.
“By virtue of these provisions and the powers vested in me as the collation and returning officer of the 2023 gubernatorial election in Kebbi State, I, Prof. Yusuf Sa’idu of the Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, hereby declare the gubernatorial election in Kebbi State inconclusive,” he said.
The APC candidate Nasir Idris led with 388,258, while the PDP candidate, Aminu Bande, a retired general, trailed with 342,980.
One of them will emerge as governor after today’s election, which is expected to have been concluded already.
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2022. Contact him via email @ [email protected].