Atiku defeats Tinubu to win Sokoto

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has won Saturday’s presidential election in Sokoto State.

Atiku polled 288,679 votes to defeat the All Progressives Congress, APC candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who scored 285,444 votes, while candidates of the Labour Party, Peter Obi and New Nigerian Peoples Party, NNPP, Rabiu Kwankwaso, came third and fourth with 6,568 and 1,300 votes respectively.

The returning officer for the Presidential election in the state, Prof. Kabiru Bala, the Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, announced the results at exactly 2:38 am on Tuesday.

Bala disclosed that results were cancelled in 133 registration areas with 471 polling units.

He further explained that the affected areas also include 301,499 registered voters with 254,902 Permanent Voter Cards collected.

The Director General of the PDP campaign committee, Yusuf Suleiman, called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to look into the issue of more than 400 polling units cancelled in the state.

Suleiman said about 300,000 voters in the state have been disenfranchised and that their votes could go for either of the political parties including APC, PDP, LP or even the NNPP.

Also speaking, the Director General of the APC presidential campaign council, Maigari Dingyadi, said politicians should not quote figures without recourse to INEC.

Dingyadi who is also the Minister for Police Affairs, however, urged INEC to look into the circumstances that led to the cancellation of the results.