Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Saturday’s presidential election, has emerged victorious in the Sokoto State elections, securing a total of 288,679 votes. He was closely followed by Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who garnered 285,444 votes. The candidates from the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and the New Nigerian Peoples Party, Rabiu Kwankwaso, finished in third and fourth places, receiving 6,568 and 1,300 votes, respectively.
The results were announced at precisely 2:38 am on Tuesday by the returning officer for the presidential election in the state, Prof. Kabiru Bala, who is also the Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. During the announcement, he invited party representatives to sign the results. In response, Yusuf Suleiman, the Director General of the PDP campaign committee, urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to address the issue of over 400 polling units that were cancelled in the state. He highlighted that approximately 300,000 voters had been disenfranchised, and their votes could have potentially gone to any of the political parties, including the APC, PDP, Labour Party, or even the NNPP.
Additionally, Maigari Dingyadi, the Director General of the APC presidential campaign council and Minister for Police Affairs, emphasized the importance of not quoting figures without consulting INEC. He also called on INEC to investigate the circumstances surrounding the cancellation of the results. The returning officer revealed that a total of 133 registration areas were affected, resulting in the cancellation of 471 polling units. He further noted that these affected areas included 301,499 registered voters, of whom 254,902 had collected their Permanent Voter Cards.
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