THE governorship candidates of the People’s Democratic Party have been winners of the governorship polls in Zamfara, Taraba and Rivers States.
In what may be described as the biggest upset of the general elections, Dauda Lawal has unseated Zamfara State Governor Bello Matawalle.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Lawal the governor-elect with a total of 377,726 votes, after he defeated Matawalle of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who polled 311,976.
He was announced as the winner in Gusau, the state capital in the early hours of Tuesday.
This came after some mild drama over the presentation of the results for Maradun Local Government Area (LGA), where allegations surfaced that the Collation Officer, Dr Ahmed Kainuwa, had been abudcted.
However, upon arrival at state collation centre at the INEC headquarters in Gusau, Kainuwa gave the reasons for his delayed appearance.
In Taraba, Kefas Agbu was declared the winner of the governorship election.
Agbu scored 257,926 votes to edge out the candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Muhammad Yahaya, who polled 202,277.
In third place, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Emmanuel Bwacha, garnered 142,502 ballots.
The state Returning Officer Prof M.A. Abdulazeez declared Agbu the winner at 12:30 am on Tuesday, after finding his win in fulfilment of the requirements to be named the governor-elect.
MEANWHILE in Rivers, Siminialayi Fubara has been declared the winner of the governorship election.
State Returning Officer, Professor Akpofure Rim-Rukeh announced the result late Monday night at the end of the two days collation at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Head Office in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
The PDP candidate polled 302,614 votes to defeat his closet rival Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who scored 95,274 votes while the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate, Senator Magnus Abe, and Labour Party (LP)’s, Beatrice Itubo came a distant third and fourth with 46,981 and 22,224 votes respectively.
Professor Akpofure Rim-Rukeh who is also the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Petroleum Resources said a total of 496,852 were accredited for the March 18 governorship election out of the 3,537,190 registered voters in the State.
He explained that of the 494,604 total votes cast, 483,934 were valid while 10, 670 were rejected votes.
