Kaduna LG polls: APC wins 15 councils, PDP 4

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is currently leading in the Kaduna state local government elections conducted on Saturday. Of the 19 local governments released yesterday, the APC won 15, while the opposition Peoples Democratic Party clinched four.
The results were announced at the various local government headquarters. Kaduna state has a total of 23 local government areas, but election did not hold in Kaura and Jaba local government areas, as the polls in the two councils were postponed till later date.
According to the results announced by the returning officers, APC won in Kaduna North, Kaduna South, Kubau, Sabon Gari, Soba, Zaria, Lere, Ikara, Makarfi , Birnin Gwari, Giwa, Kagarko, Kudan, Igabi and Kajuru local government areas, while the leading opposition party -PDP, won in Zango Kataf, Kachia, Sanga and Kauru local government areas. According to the returning officers, in Zaria local government chairmanship election, APC polled 42,859, while the PDP scored 16,033; Soba; APC had 40,903, while PDP polled 13,835.
APC also won in Giwa local government area polling 57, 005 to beat PDP which had 2,636. Similarly, in Kudan local government, the council of serving Senator Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi, who is at loggerheads with Governor el-Rufai, the party polled 76,131 to defeat PDP which had 3,394. The returning officer of Makarfi local government, Dr Musa Abdullahi Mohammed announced APC chairmanship candidate, Engr. Kabiru Muazu as winner with 22,190 votes, beating PDP’s Ishaku Ibrahim Kunkunmi who polled 13,098 votes.
The returning officer of Zango Kataf, Danjuma Baye Lika, announced PDP’s Filyas Maza as winner polling 55,643, as against APC’s Hassan John who recorded 31,514 votes. The returning officer for Kaduna North local government area, Umar Hayatu, while announcing the outcome of the exercise, said the APC chairmanship candidate, Alhaji Saleh Shuaibu polled 168,572 votes to win in Kaduna North, beating the PDP candidate, Alhaji Mohammed Sabo Babayaro, who polled 12,467 votes.
The Peoples Redemption Party candidate polled 4,956 votes. Apart from being one of the four councils within Kaduna metropolis, Kaduna North is also the local government of Governor Nasir el-Rufai. Despite being given a scare in his polling unit in Ungwar Sarki ward, Governor el-Rufai’s APC still won the Unguwar Sarki ward, polling 14,863, while PDP scored 706.
In the governor’s polling unit, APC polled 65 votes, while PDP had 50 votes for chairman in his ward; APC polled 68 votes for councillor, while PDP won 45 votes. APC also won in Makarfi local government, the council of former PDP chairman and Kaduna state governor, Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi . Results in the two remaining councils; Chikun and Jema’a local government areas are still being awaited.
Opposition kicks, threatens court action Meanwhile, the state PDP is contesting the outcome of the polls as announced by the State Independent Electoral Commission, threatening to challenge same in court.
In a statement yesterday by the state chairman of the party, Hon. Felix Hassan Hyet, the PDP alleged discrepancies in the results announced in some 13 local government areas of the state. The former aviation minister said the PDP will soon release its field results, noting that their party agents have submitted reports and they will take legal recourse to address the injustices meted on them.
He claimed that most of the results announced so far were through radio stations, rather than the returning officers whom he alleged, had disappeared. The PDP state chairman, who called on party supporters to remain calm, said the manufacturers of the electronic voting machines are supposed to have stayed in Kaduna to monitor the machines to avoid malfunction in some polling units. Hyet, however, alleged that some electronic voting machines were snatched to unknown destinations. “We want to brief you on the update of the local election results of 13 local governments so far released. Some local government results were not announced by the returning officers but radio stations.
“At the moment, we have some local government areas like, Kaduna South, Chikun, Kajuru, Jema’a, Kagarko, Sanga, still waiting to be announced as the returning officers are nowhere to be found. The returning officers have disappeared completely. Even some wards returning officers have also disappeared,” the PDP alleged. “We are waiting for the returning officers to come out and announce the results in the local government areas yet to be announced. Our agents have submitted the results to us and we will take necessary legal steps to address the injustices. The manufactured of the machines would have been on ground to monitor the machines. Humans are the ones operating the machines. “We will soon make our reports collected from our field agents public. We believe as a party, we will take over power in 2019 because Nigerians have said goodbye to APC,” Hyet added.

 

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