The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Alhaji Usman Baba of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the bye-election for Sabon Gari Constituency in the Kaduna State House of Assembly.
From Abuja, an elated PDP says its victory in the bye-election despite the bragging, intimidation and rigging machinations of the APC administration, is a further signal that the people of Kaduna state have since rejected Governor El-Rufai and his APC.
In a statement, the opposition party says its clean victory in Kaduna, particularly in the political melting point like Sabon Gari Constituency, is a foretaste of the crushing defeat that awaits the APC in Kaduna and other states of the federation in the 2023 general elections.
The Returning Officer of the election, Dr Mohammed-Nuruddin Musa, who declared the result on Saturday in Zaria, said Baba won the election with 9,113 votes.
He defeated his closest contender, Malam Musa Musa of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who got 7, 404 votes.
The returning officer also said that Malam Anas Abdullahi of the ADC had 62 votes; Chindo Ibrahim of ADP, 61 votes while Musa Halilu of PRP secured 305 votes.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the bye-election followed the declaration of the seat as vacant by the state House Assembly in April.
This was due to the failure of the lawmaker representing the constituency, Aminu Shagali to participate in legislative activities for more than 360 days.
The PDP’s says its resounding victory in the election is a reaffirmation that Kaduna state is home to PDP, in spite of the APC administration, which is now being shown the way out.
It adds, “The outcome of the Saturday’s bye-election also reinforces the popularity of the PDP as well as our candidate, Alhaji Usman Baba, while serving as an unmistaken expression of the people’s rejection of the high-handedness, oppression, executive recklessness and arrogance, divisiveness, vindictiveness, economic repression, infrastructural decay and general misrule that have characterised governance in Kaduna state under the APC.
“Since it is clear that the APC administration in Kaduna state has nothing to offer the people other than imposing a siege mentality and arrogant power intoxication, our party counsels the APC to read the hand writing on the wall on the fate that awaits it in 2023.
“The PDP congratulates the member-elect, Alhaji Usman Baba, as well as the people of Kaduna state and urges him to hit the ground running, in line with the commitment of the PDP to provide the dividends of democracy, which have eluded the people of Kaduna State in the last six years of APC’s misrule.”