1st April, 2012
. Jonathan sends congratulatory message
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday declared Alhaji Saidu Dakingari of PDP the winner of the Kebbi re-run governorship election held on Saturday.
The Returning Officer, Prof. Suleiman Bilbis, said that Dakingari scored 875,492 votes to beat his CPC rival, Alhaji Abubakar Abubakar, who scored 17,918 votes.
Bilbis, the Deputy Vice -chancellor of Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, also announced that the ACN candidate, Alhaji Kabiru Tanimu, scored 4,555 votes to place third.
The election was contested by 15 political parties, including ANPP, whose candidate, Alhaji Suleiman Musa Argungu, withdrew from the race 24 hours before the election. Ten days earlier, the candidates of CPC and ACN, had withdrawn from the race and joined PDP.
The election was necessitated by the nullification of the victory of Dakingari in the 2011 general election by the Supreme Court following a petition by the CPC candidate, Abubakar.
The CPC had announced its boycott of the election because of the refusal of INEC to allow it to field a replacement for Abubakar.
President Goodluck Jonathan has congratulated Alhaji Saidu Dakingari of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on his emphatic victory in yesterday’s re-run governorship election in Kebbi State.
In a press release signed by Reuben Abati, his special adviser on media and publicity, the President thanks old and returning members of the PDP in Kebbi State for heeding calls by the party leadership for reconciliation and unity in the party; and working together to ensure that the party’s flag-bearer, Alhaji Dakingari won overwhelmingly in Saturday’s election.
“As he prepares to return to the Governor’s office in Birnin-Kebbi, President Jonathan urges Alhaji Dakingari to do his utmost best to ensure that the people of Kebbi State who gave him and the PDP a landslide victory are rewarded with an effective and efficient administration that will deliver good governance and rapid state wide development.
“The President assures Alhaji Dakingari that the efforts of his incoming administration to continuously improve the living conditions of the people of Kebbi State will receive all possible support and assistance from the federal government.
“President Jonathan also commends voters in Kebbi State, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and its personnel, as well as national security agencies for playing their parts in ensuring that the re-run election ordered by the Supreme Court was peacefully and successfully conducted”, the statement concluded.