Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has emerged victorious in the Sokoto State elections held on Saturday. He secured a total of 288,679 votes, defeating his closest rival, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who garnered 285,444 votes.
Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian Peoples Party came third and fourth respectively with 6,568 and 1,300 votes. The results were announced by the returning officer for the Presidential election in Sokoto State, Professor Kabiru Bala, who is the Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
The announcement was made at exactly 2:38 am on Tuesday, and party representatives were invited to sign the results. However, the Director General of the PDP campaign committee, Yusuf Suleiman, called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to investigate the cancellation of more than 400 polling units in the state. He claimed that about 300,000 voters were disenfranchised and that their votes could have gone to any of the political parties, including the APC, PDP, LP, or the NNPP.
Maigari Dingyadi, the Director General of the APC presidential campaign council and Minister for Police Affairs, urged politicians not to quote figures without first checking with INEC. He also called on INEC to look into the circumstances that led to the cancellation of the results.
The returning officer revealed that a total of 133 registration areas were affected, with 471 polling units cancelled. These areas include 301,499 registered voters, with 254,902 Permanent Voter Cards collected. It remains to be seen whether the cancellation of the polling units will have any effect on the final outcome of the Presidential election in Sokoto State.
