The candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Jibril Baba, has been declared the winner of the Saturday re-run election in Lavun constituency of Niger State.
The Independent National Electoral Commission announced that there were a total of 43,464 valid votes, 846 rejected votes and total votes cast 44,310.
The returning officer, Prof Emmanuel Raymond, who declared the results on Sunday said Baba garnered 21,393 votes while the People’s Democratic Party’s candidate, Joshua Gana, obtained 20,802 votes.
Raymond declared, “I, Prof. Emmanuel Raymond, hereby certify that I am the returning officer for the Lavun constituency rerun election held on 3rd February 2024. That the election was contested.
“The candidates received the following votes; AA 2, ABC 24, ADP 87, APC 21,393, APGA 32, APP4, NNPP 845, NRM 30, PDP 20,802, PRP 27, DDP 21, ZLP 6.
“That Jibril Ndagi Baba of APC having satisfied the requirement of the law is hereby declared the winner and returned elected.”
In an interview with newsmen, a member representing Bida, Gbako and Katcha Federal Constituency, Saidu Abdul, said the electorate voted for the APC candidate because of the sitting governor, Mohammed Bago.
“The victory didn’t come easy but as a party that believes so much in working with the people, working as a team, I think our teamwork actually paid.
“The glaring message from all these is that the people are well in tune with the vision and the mission of our sitting governor who has dedicated the little time he has spent in office to better the lot of our people.
“So, it’s more of a testimony for and acceptance of his government and of course, the APC as a party. We thank the people for turning out in their numbers. There were hitches in some places but the umpires also in their usual way, were free to have effected corrections in some instances. Of course, at the end of it all, we have carried the day,” he said.
Lavun constituency is one of the constituencies where rerun elections were held on Saturday in 80 Local Government Areas across 575 registration areas and 8,934 polling units.
The 26 states where the by-elections and re-run elections were conducted include Ebonyi, Yobe, Kebbi, Lagos, Ondo, Taraba, Benue, Borno, Kaduna, Plateau, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Cross River, Delta, Enugu, Jigawa, Katsina, Adamawa, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Kano, Nasarawa, Niger, Oyo, Sokoto and Zamfara.
