By Abdullahi Mohammed
The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC has retained Jigawa State with the victory of its candidate, Malam Umar Namadi in the governorship election conducted on Saturday.
Namadi, who is the incumbent deputy governor of Jigawa, scored 618,449 votes to beat his closest rival, Mr Mustapha Sule Lamido who polled 368,726 votes, according to the result of the election announced on Sunday in Dutse, the state capital.
The result was announced by the Returning Officer for the poll, Prof. Umar Zaiyan of Federal University Birnin Kebbi.
He said: “I Prof. Umar Zaiyan hereby certify that Umar Namadi of APC, having satisfied the requirements of the Law is declared the winner of Jigawa governorship election.”
According to him, 1.07 million voters were accredited in the March 18 election with 1.05 million votes cast, out of which 1.03 million votes were the total valid votes cast at the exercise.
The 60-year-old politician and chartered accountant also defeated Malam Aminu Ringim of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) who clinched 37,156 votes.
The PDP had earlier called on the returning officer to declare a section of the election as inconclusive.
When the party agents were called in by Zaiyan to sign the result sheets containing the scores of each candidate in the governorship contest, the PDP’s agent, Malam Abubakar, declined to endorse it.
He said that the returning officer ought to had address his complaints before proceeding to perfect the formalities of signing the result sheets, as such he left the collation centre without signing the result.
Namadi who was born on April 7, 1963, obtained degree in Accountancy and Masters degree in Business Administration from Bayero University, Kano.
The governor-elect had served in various capacities both in public and private sectors. (NAN)
