INEC declares PDP’s Bala Mohammed Bauchi governor-elect

Bala  Mohammed

Senator Bala Mohammed of Peoples Democratic Party has been declared Bauchi governor-elect polling 515,113 votes to defeat incumbent Mohammed Abubakar of the All Progressives Congress APC who polled 500,625 votes.
Bala won with 14,488 votes in another tight governorship race. Sokoto and Kano governorship races were similarly close.
NAN reports that the governorship election in the state had earlier been ruled as inconclusive by INEC and March 23 fixed for re-rerun poll in Tafawa Balewa local government area and some polling units in some other local government areas of the State.
INEC later reversed itself as it ordered the collation of the results. This followed a fact-finding report by a panel led by an INEC commissioner Festus Okoye.
But Governor Abubakar challenged INEC’s volte-face in an Abuja High court.
The court initially ruled to stall INEC’s action, but on Monday, the court gave INEC the go-ahead to conclude the collation.
The Returning officer Professor Mohammed Kyari declared Bala Mohammed, a former senator and minister of the Federal Capital Territory as the winner of the election on Monday night.
“Bala Mohammed having scored the highest votes and satisfied all the requirements of the law is hereby declared Winner of the Governorship election in the state”, he said.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi appealed to politicians to take defeat in good faith
“In any contest there will be a winner and a loser”. He urged the politicians not to gloat in victory.