Bisola David
The Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate and current governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, has been proclaimed the winner of the state’s 2023 governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The returning officer for the governorship election in Bauchi State, Professor Abdulkarim Sabo Muhammed, announced the results at the INEC office in Bauchi on Monday. He said that PDP candidate Bala Mohammed received 525,280 votes, defeating APC candidate Air Martial Sadique Baba Abubakar, who received 433,272 votes.
Whereas Senator Halliru Jika of the New Nigeria Peoples Party finished third with 60,496 votes.
Meanwhile, an agent for the main opposition All Progressive Congress, Hon. Abdulmumin Muhammad Kundak, disputed the results in their entirety and refused to sign them, claiming that there had been violence and excessive voting in 77 polling places in the Bauchi local government alone.
“I won’t sign the results since they were tampered with, and I’ve complained and raised multiple warnings with the returning officer but to no avail. You are a living witness to the constitutional concerns and Electoral Act provisions,” Kundak stated.
After presenting the results at the collation center at INEC headquarters in Bauchi, Kundak questioned the returning officer for the Bauchi LGA, Dr. Muhammad Mukhtar Musa, and made the accusations.
Kundak said, “You only give overvoting as one justification for closing polling units. Why did you choose not to report the violence that occurred in more than 70 polling places that were tallied under your supervision, especially in Kundunron and Mummusar, where APC party agents were attacked and hurt? The returning officer and two of our agents were once more abducted in Burshin Miri and taken to an unidentified location. The police detained them after they raised an alert.
“All these and other objections were not adequate for you to submit the reasons for cancellation other than over voting in Shekal Primary School, where our agents was forced to sign the results sheet under duress after negotiation failed. Kundak asked.
“When I discussed what happened with my gubernatorial candidate, you will know our next course of action. We would want to express our gratitude to the people of Bauchi State for their overwhelming support and solidarity, and I also urged them to maintain their composure as the party’s leadership used legal channels to retrieve their mandates,” Kundak added.
