Tambuwal now walking tightrope as PDP closes gap with one LGA left

Governor Aminu Tambuwal, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the Sokoto State governorship election, now walks a tightrope as the margin of win between him and the opposition has narrowed with results from only one local government area, Kebbe, now being awaited for collation.

Earlier, after results from 18 LGAs of the 22 where supplementary election held yesterday, Saturday, in Sokoto State, were collated, Mr Tambuwal was leading Ahmed Aliyu of the All Progressives Congress with 3,574.

That was a little extension of his lead as he had come into the supplementary with a 3,413 margin of win from the first ballot, held on March 9.

But with results from 21 LGAs collated, with one left, on Sunday morning, the gap between Mr Tambuwal and Mr Aliyu has now shrunk to 2,057 votes.

The remaining Kebbe LGA has at least 20,000 registered voters, thereby putting Mr Tambuwal in an uncertain situation.

At the moment, Mr Tambuwal has gained a total of 506,545 votes from both the first ballot and the Saturday’s supplementary elections, while Mr Aliyu has 504,488.

At about 03:30 a.m. on Sunday, the Returning Officer, Fatima Mukhtar, announced that Kebbe results were not available yet and that officials from there were just on their way to Sokoto.

Ms Mukhtar, professor and Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Dutse, asked that the collation exercise should close and then reopen at 9 a.m..