Adamawa, Kebbi, others know fate today as supplementary election underway

After the deadlock in the March 18 governorship election, Umar Fintiri the incumbent governor and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Aisha Binani of the All Progressives Congress (APC) will know their fate at the end of today’s supplementary election ordered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

INEC had declared the Adamawa state governorship elections on March 18 inconclusive
over the margin of votes when Fintiri scored 421,524 and Binani who is looking to be the first elected female governor in Nigeria scored 390, 275 with many reported irregularities.

Kebbi State where the governorship election was also inconclusive will see APC’s Aminu Bande and PDP’s Nasir Idris jostling for the people’s vote once again in the supplementary election.

In Sokoto State, the electorates will file out to determine the fate of Aminu Tambuwal, the outgoing governor who is contesting for the Sokoto South Senatorial election seat, and Senator Aliyu Wamakko, who is seeking to be re-elected as the senator representing Sokoto North Senatorial District.

According to INEC, the supplementary elections would hold in 2,660 polling units and 185 local councils across 24 states of the federation.
Two governorship seats and 94 legislative seats are up for grabs in the elections and INEC has assured that all arrangements had been concluded to ensure free and fair re-run in the affected areas.

Festus Okoye, INEC’s national commissioner, voter education and publicity, stated this Friday on the sidelines of the distribution of sensitive election materials in Birnin-Kebbi, Kebbi State.

While promising a credible, free an fair election Okoye said the necessary materials and personel have been deployed accordingly.

Okoye said: “The commission is ready for the conduct of the supplementary elections. The commission has deployed all sensitive materials to all the constituencies where supplementary has been indicated.

“Three National Commissioners are in Kebbi for the governorship supplementary. We also have one Senatorial Election, two Federal constituency election and eight State Assembly elections in Kebbi.

“The commission deployed two national commissioners to Adamawa , one to Sokoto state and one to Rivers .

“We have deployed additional directing staff and other categories of staff from contiguous states to states where we have governorship and senatorial elections,” Okoye said.

He said that INEC was also deploying most of its staff as supervisory presiding officers and registration area collation officers.

“Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will be fully deployed for the election. We have reconfigured the BVAS for optimum performance.”

Okoye said that INEC resident electoral commissioners had held stakeholder engagements with political parties and civil society groups.

He added that INEC had received assurances from security agencies of adequate cover and protection for voters, election duty staff and other stakeholders during the election.

He advised political actors participating in the Saturday supplementary elections to conduct themselves in a manner befitting of Nigeria electoral process.

“We must continue to deepen our democracy and continue to provide the electoral ambience conducive for free, fair, transparent and inclusive elections.

“We will conclude pending elections tomorrow and wait for court ordered rerun elections if any.