Seven governorship candidates in Kaduna State have rejected the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) declaration of Senator Uba Sani of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as governor‑elect. Acting under the “Rescue and Rebuild Gubernatorial Candidates Forum,” they cite massive vote cancellations across most local government areas as the basis for their rejection.
The candidates—representing the Young Progressives Party, Allied Peoples Movement, Action Peoples Party, National Rescue Movement, Action Alliance, All Progressive Grand Alliance, and the Action Democratic Party—were among the nine who endorsed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Isah Kudan, before Saturday’s election. According to the state INEC Returning Officer, Prof. Lawal Suleiman Bilbis of Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, Sani of the APC received 730,002 votes, while his closest rival, PDP’s Isah Ashiru Kudan, scored 719,196 votes. The Labour Party candidate, Jonathan Asake, obtained 58,283 votes to place third, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party candidate, Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, garnered 21,405 votes, with rejected votes totaling 19,114.
Addressing a joint press conference in Kaduna on Wednesday, forum chairman and YPP governorship candidate Ambassador Sanin Yaya announced that the group would retain legal counsel to pursue the matter to the end and compel INEC to act appropriately. He stated, “We wish to address you and other loyal voters on the purported election result declared by INEC, which is unacceptable to us and many others. We call on INEC to take the necessary steps regarding the result that declared the APC candidate the winner, referring to the Electoral Act 2022.”
Yaya further explained that in many polling units across all local governments, Form EC40G was completed by Returning Officers, and the number of registered voters who collected permanent voter cards in those units exceeds the margin of victory in the Kaduna governorship race. He urged INEC to postpone the announcement of results until a supplementary election is held in the affected polling units where elections were cancelled. Specifically, he highlighted that in Kudan LGA, results from two wards were omitted from the collated governorship tally despite being conducted and posted on the INEC Result Viewing portal.
Concluding, Yaya asserted that INEC appears compromised by the ruling party, despite its mandate to conduct free, fair, and credible elections. The undersigned parties call on INEC to adhere to the rule of law, immediately cancel the previously declared governorship result, and act swiftly to safeguard democracy.
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