Court order: Returning Officer announces result of senatorial election, fails to declare winner in Bauchi

The All Progressives Congress on Tuesday garnered the highest total votes cast for the Bauchi South Senatorial District but the Returning Officer, Prof. Ahmed Sarkin-Fagam, could not declare a winner for the election.

Announcing the result in Bauchi, Sarkin-Fagam, a lecturer with Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi State, said APC scored 250,725 votes, ahead of other parties, but had no candidate recognized by the law as it had failed to substitute its candidate, Senator Lawal Gumau, as directed earlier by a court of law.

He said the PDP candidate, Alhaji Garba Dahiru, came second with 175,527 votes, while Lawal Ibrahim of the People’s Redemption Party, placed third, with 43,386 votes.

The Returning Officer said candidates of 18 political parties contested for the senatorial seat in the zone.

Commenting on the development, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi, explained that APC had failed to substitute a candidate for the poll as ordered by the court.

According to him, the candidature of Senator Lawal Gumau representing the district, was nullified by a court, prior to the election, with an order that the party should substitute the candidate.

He said that up till the time of the conduct of the election, the party had failed to obey the court order, as such Gumau could not be returned as winner of the election.

Bauchi South District comprises of Toro, Dass, Tafawa-Balewa, Alkaleri, Kirfi, Bogoro and Bauchi Local Government Areas.

The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that a Federal High Court in Abuja had earlier ordered that Gumau be substituted with another candidate, Ibrahim Zailani, who had challenged the outcome of the APC primaries in the state.

(NAN)