All outstanding elections to hold April 15 – INEC 

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has scheduled all outstanding elections from the National Assembly, Governorship and House of Assembly polls for April 15, 2023.

There are also inconclusive elections from the National Assembly of February 25 as well as the Adamawa and Kebbi governorship elections on March 18 are also among the inconclusive and rescheduled polls.

Adamawa governorship election

INEC initially Declared the Adamawa governorship election inconclusive on March 20, with explanations that its decision for the cancellation was as a result of the margin of votes recorded in the election by the contestants.

According to the electoral umpire, the cancelled votes were more than the margin of victory between the top two candidates.

Ahmadu Fintiri, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial candidate, who is also the incumbent governor of the state, polled 421,524. His closest rival, Senator Aishatu Dahiru (popularly known as Binani), the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) secured 390, 275.

The recorded margin between the two contestants is over 30,000 votes, which according to INEC was less than the cancelled votes.

Fintiri was declared the winner in 13 of Adamawa’s 21 local government areas, while Binani won eight LGAs.

Kebbi State governorship election

INEC declared the Kebbi State governorship poll inconclusive on March 20. Yusuf Sa’idu, the INEC returning officer who is a Professor at Danfodio University in Sokoto, announced the development at the collation centre in Birnin Kebbi.

According to him, cancellations occurred across several Registration Areas (RAs) in various voting districts in 20 of the 21 Local Government Areas in the state. However, the declaration of the election as inconclusive was in line with provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

“Sub-section three of section 51 states that where the result of an election is cancelled in accordance with sub-section two, there shall be no return for the election until another poll has taken place in the affected polling unit.

Professor Yusuf Sa’idu, INEC returning officer of the 2023 gubernatorial election in Kebbi State gubernatorial election inconclusive then declared the gubernatorial election in Kebbi State inconclusive.