ADC upholds Kaduna gov candidate, orders rerun in disputed areas

The African Democratic Congress primary election appeals committee in Kaduna State has affirmed the emergence of Shuaibu Mikati as the party’s governorship candidate, while ordering a fresh and rerun exercise in several federal and state constituencies. This followed the treatment of petitions arising from the party’s recently concluded primaries. Chairman of the committee, Dr Muhammed Fagge, announced the decisions on Tuesday, saying the panel carefully reviewed petitions, documentary evidence and submissions from aggrieved aspirants before reaching its verdicts. Fagge, a retired Comptroller of Immigration, said the committee unanimously upheld Mikati’s victory after establishing that he secured the highest number of valid votes cast during the governorship primaries. According to him, evidence presented before the panel also revealed irregularities and fraudulent activities allegedly linked to some competing governorship aspirants, which further reinforced the committee’s decision to affirm Mikati as the party’s flagbearer. Fagge said, “The committee thoroughly examined all petitions and supporting documents. After a painstaking review, we established that Shuaibu Idris Mikati secured the highest number of valid votes cast in the governorship primary election and is therefore duly returned as the party’s candidate.” The committee also upheld the victories of Tukur Salisu Kakeyi in the Zaria Federal Constituency primaries and Muhammed Mahmoud Aliyu in the Soba Federal Constituency contest after confirming that both aspirants obtained the highest number of lawful votes in their respective elections. However, the panel declared several primary elections inconclusive and ordered reruns in constituencies where it found substantial irregularities, procedural breaches, omission of aspirants from ballot papers and inadequate evidence of voting. In the Ikara/Kubau Federal Constituency, the committee directed a rerun after finding that a duly screened aspirant, Ibrahim Kubau, was omitted from the ballot papers. Related News NDC aspirant petitions party over Delta Reps primary result Ex-lawmaker claims hijack of Imo NDC structure Omo-Agege’s resignation from APC didn’t come as surprise — Delta gov Similarly, it ordered a fresh exercise for Kaduna South Federal Constituency after investigations allegedly showed that there was no credible evidence that elections were conducted across all wards in the constituency. Fagge disclosed that rerun elections would be conducted in affected wards and constituencies across Kaura, Soba, Ikara, Kajuru, Badarawa/Malali, Magajin