UPDATED: Bala Mohammed wins Bauchi guber race

The Bauchi state gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Sen. Bala Mohammed, has been declared winner of the governorship election in Bauchi state.

Declaring the winner of the poll, the returning officer Prof. Mohammed Kyari, a Vice Chancellor of the Modibbo Adama University of Technology Yola, said that after merging the final results, the APC candidate polled  515,113 votes while his close rival Governor  Mohammed Abubakar of the All Progressive Congress scored 500,625  votes.

“I professor Mohammed Kyari certified as the returning officer of the March 9, March  23 and March  25 2019, governorship election in Bauchi state hereby announced that  Bala Abdulkadir  Mohammed having satisfied the requirement of the law and scored the highest number of votes is hereby declared the winner and returned reelected,” He said.

He said that the total number of the registered voters at the Guber poll were 2,462, 843, the accredited voters; 1,143,019 The total valid votes cast stood at 1,111,406 while rejected votes are 22, 560. Those who cast their ballot were 1,133,966

He added that the PDP candidate defeated his opponent with 14, 488 votes.

Ali Pate of the Peoples Redemption Party polled 46, 326 votes while Ahmed Adamu Shuaibu of New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP followed respectively with 33, 339 votes.

Earlier, during the March 9 inconclusive election, Mohammed was credited with 469,512 votes and Abubakar 465,453, with a vote margin of 4059 but the election was declared inconclusive after  the total number of votes cancelled during March 9 election was more than the margin between the PDP candidate, who was leading with  votes and that of the APC candidate.

At the second ballot, Sen. Bala Mohammed PDP, garnered a total of 6376 votes against his main opponent, incumbent Governor Mohammed Abubakar who polled 5117 votes at the rerun, with a vote margin of 1259 between both parties.

The total number of registered voters at the rerun was 22,759. Accredited voters are 12, 109, Valid votes, 11, 568 while total votes cast are 11, 979. Rejected votes, 403.

The rerun election was held in 36 Polling covering 29 registration areas (wards) in 15 affected local government areas.

INEC had declared the first ballot inconclusive on the grounds that the number of cancelled votes was higher than the margin of lead between the two top political parties.

The electoral body later announced that it would resume collation when it found out that the number of cancelled votes was tampered with, a decision Abubakar and the APC challenged in court.

Consequently, the  Federal High Court sitting in Abuja barred the Commission (INEC) from collation of result of the governorship election of March 9 in Bauchi State in an order given by Justice Inyang Ekwo on Tuesday following an ex parte application filed APC and the incumbent governor of the state, Mohammed Abubakar.

INEC  on Monday  resumed the collation of the results of the election from Tafawa Balewa Local government area which process was halted last week on the ground of  the Court Order restraining the commission , as the  Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday later  gave the  Commission the leeway to continue and conclude the collation of the results of the March 9 , 2019 governorship election in the Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of Bauchi State.

The  Federal High Court in Abuja clearly dismissed the suit filed by the Governor of Bauchi State, Mohammed Abubakar and the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenging the decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to resume collation exercise in the state’s gubernatorial election.

Read also: INEC resumes collation of Bauchi governorship poll result

In a judgment delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo.

Justice Ekwo set aside the order for maintenance of status quo earlier made by the court and ordered INEC to proceed with its activities geared at concluding the governorship election in Bauchi State.

The result for Tafawa Balewa LGA, a stronghold of the PDP was initially cancelled when the  Collation Officer, Mrs Dominion Anosike alleged she was  under pressure from Party Agents who could not wait for the arrival of a replacement result sheet and decided to collate the result on an available RA result sheet instead of the replacement LGA result sheet.

Apparently, the Returning Officer, Mohammed Kyari, rejected the regenerated result because it was on a wrong result sheet during her presentation at the State Governorship Collation Centre which led to the declaration of the first ballot inconclusive.

Meanwhile, the incumbent governor, Mohammed Abubakar has congratulated the governor-elect.

In a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Strategy Ali.M.Ali.He said,

“I congratulate my brother, Sen Bala on this victory at the polls.

“I am delighted to note that in-spite of the intensity of the campaigns in our dear state, a peaceful election took place without bloodshed.

“Let me, therefore, invite the Governor-elect to join me in working out the process of a smooth transition.

“I sincerely thank the entire people of Bauchi state for their support to my administration and urge them to extend the same to the incoming administration.

“I also urge governor-elect to caution his supporters to be law-abiding while celebrating since the period of campaigns is now over.