The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed Saturday, April 15 for governorship, national and state assembly supplementary elections.
The commission made the disclosure in a tweet on Monday. “Arising from its meeting held today, the Independent National Electoral Commission has decided that all outstanding Governorship, National and State Assembly supplementary elections will take place on Saturday 15th April 2023. A detailed official statement will follow shortly,” the tweet reads.
The announcement comes barely one week after the governorship elections of Kebbi and Adamawa states were declared inconclusive.
Last Monday, the election in Kebbi was declared inconclusive due to breaches of electoral laws that led to cancellation of results in polling units within 20 of the state’s 21 local government areas (LGAs). INEC’s Returning Officer in the state, Professor Yusuf Sa’idu, said violence, destruction of election materials, disruption of electoral proceedings and over-voting played a role in having the election declared inconclusive.
Before declaring the election inconclusive, the All Progressives Congress (APC) was leading the poll with 388,258 votes, as against 342,980 votes scored by the PDP.
In Adamawa, the candidate of the APC, Senator Aishatu Dahiru (aka Binani) getting 390,275 votes while the incumbent Governor Ahmadu Fintiri and PDP candidate polling 421,524 votes. However, INEC state collation officer, Prof Muhammadu Mele of the University of Maiduguri, declared the election in inconclusive due to the margin of votes. He said, “Elections were not held in 47 wards, affecting 69 polling units. So, this gives us a margin of 31,249. The total number of PVCs collected in places where elections were not held amounted to 37,016.”
