INEC to conduct supplementary elections in Kebbi, Adamawa, others April 15

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed April 15 for the conduct of all outstanding governorship, national, and state assembly supplementary elections.

Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi disclosed this on Monday in Abuja.

“Arising from its meeting held today, the Independent National Electoral Commission has decided that all outstanding governorship, National and state Assembly supplementary elections will take place on Saturday 15th April 2023.

“A detailed official statement will follow shortly,” Oyekanmi said.

The announcement comes barely one week after the governorship elections of Kebbi and Adamawa states were declared inconclusive.

Last Monday, the election in Kebbi was declared inconclusive due to breaches of electoral laws that led to cancellation of results in polling units in 20 of the state’s 21 local government areas.

Professor Yusuf Sa’idu, INEC’s Returning Officer in the state, said violence, destruction of election materials, disruption of electoral proceedings and over-voting played a role in having the election declared inconclusive.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) was leading the poll with 388,258 votes, as against 342,980 votes scored by the PDP before the Returning Officer declared the election inconclusive.

Also, the candidate of the APC in Adamawa State, Senator Aishatu Dahiru (aka Binani) got 390,275 votes while the incumbent Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri and PDP candidate polled 421,524 votes.

However, Prof Muhammadu Mele of the University of Maiduguri, INEC state collation officer, declared the election inconclusive due to the margin of votes.

The INEC state collation officer said: “Elections were not held in 47 wards, affecting 69 polling units. So, this gives us a margin of 31,249. The total number of PVCs collected in places where elections were not held amounted to 37,016.”