PDP Set To Win Taraba State Guber Election

As the results of the supplementary election continued to trickle in, the governorship candidate of the PDP, Darius Ishaku, was steadily consolidating his lead in the April 11 gubernatorial election, which was declared inconclusive by INEC. Going into yesterday's supplementary election which was conducted in 218 polling units, Ishaku was ahead of his main challenger, Senator Aisha Jummai Alhassan of APC by 54, 812 votes.
Results announced from the various polling units across the 10 local government areas indicate that PDP won in Kofar Sarki in Takum local government by 588 votes against seven votes polled by APC.
In Daka polling unit in Takum, PDP polled 378 while APC scored 110 votes just as PDP scored 178 against APC’s five votes in Rafin-Kada ward in Wukari local government.
At Asibiti ward in Donga local government, PDP scored 4,412 while APC scored 604 and in Akete ward still in Donga local government, PDP polled 2,065 votes in 11 out of the 12 polling units collated while APC scored 1,506.
Also at Suntai Daaji in Donga local government, PDP garnered 1,139 votes against APC’s 74 votes, while at Nyitan ward in Donga, PDP scored 4,304 while APC scored 199 votes. In the only polling unit where election was held in Yorro local government, PDP scored 469 while APC polled 34 votes.
At Muhammed Tukur polling unit which was the only polling unit where election was conducted in Jalingo local government, APC polled 362 votes while PDP polled 90 votes while in 17 out of the 20 polling units in Bali local government, PDP polled 5,370 votes while APC polled 750 votes.
The PDP candidate is also leading in Karim Lamido local government where the acting governor of the state, Alhaji Sani Danladi, hails from just as PDP is leading in all the four polling units in Ussa local government.
The total number of registered voters in the 218 polling units where the election was conducted is127, 125 and based on the low turnout of voters, the number of accredited voters in the election is not expected to be more than 50 per cent of the registered voters.
The local governments where the additional elections were held are Donga, Bali, Takum, Karim Lamido, Kurmi, Yorro, Ussa, Wukari and Zing.
Though, security was tight in the parts of Taraba, Imo, and Abia states where supplementary governorship elections held yesterday, very few voters participated in the exercise meant to conclude the process for determining those who would govern the states for the next four years.
INEC had said on Friday that the supplementary elections will hold in 51 Registration Areas in nine local government areas of Abia State; 79 RAs in 23 LGAs in Imo; and 32 RAs in 10 LGAs in Taraba. But the election in Abia State took place in eight local government areas, comprising 274 polling units. INEC’s head of voter education/publicity, Mr. Edwin Enabor, explained that Umunneochi Local Government Area was “erroneously” included among the areas designated for the supplementary poll.
The low turnout of voters was so widespread that in Abia State, town criers had to use wooden gongs to try to mobilise voters to come out and vote. That was the situation at Agbo village in Ibeku East II state constituency and other places. The town criers went to work when it was noticed that three hours into the official time for the commencement of accreditation, voters were not coming out to be accredited at polling unit 007.
At Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU) in Ikwuano local government, voters at polling unit 007 were voting for the third time since April 11. One of the voters, Mr. Isaac Onwuegbulam, told THISDAY after accreditation that they had voted “peacefully” on April 11 only to learn later that it was cancelled. He said the voting was repeated on April 12 “but later we heard that ballot boxes were snatched,” hence it was again cancelled. He said voters in the area had become fatigued.
Generally, however, the supplementary elections went peacefully, despite the tension and threat of violence that preceded the polls in some places. There was tight security with partial restriction of vehicular movement, especially in the designated areas for the supplementary polls.
In Taraba State, six units of the Police Mobile Force from neighbouring states were deployed to the state, in addition to an unconfirmed numbers of soldiers. The security personnel moved around the state capital in a show of force. The Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) in charge of finance and administration at the force headquarters, Mr Hillary Opara, led two other Assistant Inspectors General of Police (AIG) to the state to provide security for the election.