APC victorious in Katsina, Jigawa, Gombe, Yobe, Sokoto gov poll

The All Progressives Congress has retained its control of Katsina, Yobe, Gombe and Jigawa states, winning last Saturday’s governorship poll in those states.

The party also reclaimed Sokoto State from the Peoples Democratic Party, which has controlled the state in the last eight years.

For Jigawa, Sokoto and Katsina states, all the winners are brand new governors.

Gombe and Yobe states have incumbent governors, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya and Mai Mala Buni respectively, getting re-elected for a second term of four years.

In Gombe, INEC declared the incumbent governor, Inuwa Yahaya of the APC as winner.

The returning officer, Prof. Maimuna Waziri, of the Federal University, Gashua, said Yahaya scored 342,821 votes to defeat his closest rival, Muhammad Jibril Barde of the PDP, who polled 233,131 votes.

She said Khamisu Ahmed Mailantarki of the NNPP came third with 19,861 votes, while Keftin Amuga Esau of Labour Party (LP) scored 1,753 votes to come fourth.

Maimuna said there were 1,575,794 registered voters, 618,231 accredited voters, 605,355 valid votes, 11,390 rejected votes and 616,745 total votes cast.

She also said Yahaya won in nine of the 11 local government areas of the state.

In Yobe State, Governor Buni was re-elected winning the highest votes in all the 17 local government areas of the state with a total of 317,113 votes. His closest challenger, the PDP’s Alhaji Sharif Abdullahi, came second with 124,259 votes.

Returning Officer, Prof. Umar Pate, who is Vice Chancellor of the Federal University Kashere, Gombe State, said accredited voters were 459,492, valid votes, 444,567 and total votes cast, 457,781.

He said the candidate of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Garba Umar Alhaji Tsunami, got 14,246 votes; while Arabi Muhammad of Action Alliance (AA) scored 3,260 votes.

In Katsina State, the candidate of the APC, Dikko Radda, emerged the new governor.

Returning officer, Prof. Muazu Abubakar, said Radda polled 859,892 votes to defeat his closest rival of the PDP, Yakubu Lado, who got 486,620 votes.

He said the results also showed that the NNPP candidate, Nura Khalil, scored 8,263 votes; Imran Jino of the PRP got 4,226 votes; while Ibrahim Zakari of the SDP got 1,049 votes. Labour Party’s Abu Musawa won 560 votes.

He gave the number of registered voters in the state as 3,516,719; accredited voters 1,399,291; valid votes 1,365,848; rejected votes 20,579; while the total votes cast stood at 1,386,427.

Candidate of the APC in Jigawa State, Umar Namadi, also emerged the new governor winning in 26 of the 27 LGAs with a total of 618,449 votes.

Returning officer for the election in the state, Prof. Zayyanu Umar of the Federal University Birnin Kebbi, said Mustapha Lamido of the PDP came second with 618,449 votes; while the candidate of the NNPP, Aminu Ibrahim, came third with 37,156 votes.

Returning officer for the governorship election in Jigawa, Zaiyanu Umar, announced that Namadi scored 618,449 of the total votes cast to beat Lamido who polled 368,726 votes.

Also, the governorship candidate of APC in Sokoto, Ahmed Aliyu, was declared winner of the 2023 elections having defeated Sa’idu Umar Ubandoma of the PDP.

Returning officer, Prof. Armiya’u Hamisu, said the APC candidate polled 453,661 votes; while the PDP candidate got 404,632 votes.