The Doguwa/Tudun Wada Federal Constituency of Kano State’s February 25 National Assembly election was called a tie, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which has now revised its position.
Also, 13 of the federal constituency’s voting places have scheduled reruns.
The election’s returning officer, Prof. Ibrahim Adamu Yakasai, made the new development in the federal constituency public on Wednesday.
It should be noted that INEC previously declared Hon. Alhassan Doguwa, an incumbent member representing the federal constituency and the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives who ran on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the election’s victor.
The total number of votes domiciled in the polling units that were canceled according to Yakasai, “had buried the margin of votes difference cast in favor of the tandem of APC and NNPP.” Yakasai also said there were cancellations of results in 13 voting units.
According to him, 6,917 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) were received in the 13 polling places that were closed, which is more than the 4,000-vote difference between the APC and NNPP.
Yakasai stated that to decide the winner of the Doguwa/Tudun Wada Federal Constituency election held on February 25, INEC will hold additional elections in the affected units.
Nevertheless, on Tuesday, the election umpire struck Doguwa’s name off the list of representatives-elect, blaming the change on irregularities in the electoral process. According to the commission, the returning officer forced him to declare himself the winner of the election.
This came after Doguwa was taken into custody in connection with the violence that broke out in the federal constituency during the collation of the election results, which resulted in the deaths of two people when the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) secretariat was set on fire, allegedly on the legislator’s orders.
The top legislator was charged by the police and put in custody after appearing before a magistrate’s court in Kano.
Doguwa was nevertheless given an N500 million bail and forbidden from going to the district on Saturday to vote in the governorship and state assembly elections.
