The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje, winner of the Kano State governorship supplementary election held Saturday.
Mr Ganduje lost the first election held on March 9 by a slim margin, but his total votes in the two polls put him ahead of his main challenger, the candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Abba Yusuf.
Before the supplementary election, Mr Yusuf was leading Mr Ganduje with about 26,000 votes after he polled 1,014,474 votes to Mr Ganduje’s 987,819 votes, leaving a difference of 26,655 votes.
In the supplementary election held in 28 out of the 44 local government areas in the state, Mr Ganduje won by scoring 45,876 votes to Mr Yusuf’s 10,239 thereby up turning the result in his favour, INEC said.
At past 7pm Sunday, the State Returning Officer Bello Shehu, a professor, announced that Mr Ganduje scored a total vote of 1,033,695 while Mr Yusuf polled 1,024,713.
He made the announcement at the headquarters of INEC in Kano.
The winning margin is 8,982 between the two major candidates.
The returning officer is currently inputing the result into the mastersheet after which he will make a final declaration as required by law.
The PDP has already rejected the conduct of the supplementary election and asked INEC to cancel it.
Violence marred the conduct of the supplementary election after political thugs attackec voters and journalists.
The police have however played down the reports of violence saying the election was largely peaceful.
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