Following the confusion in the All Progressives Congress in Bauchi State over who is the party’s authentic candidate for the Bauchi South senatorial poll is, the Independent National Electoral Commission decided to declare the APC the winner of the election.
INEC, however, refused to mention the name of Lawal Gumau, the senator representing the area fielded by the APC.
The APC had declared Gumau the winner of its primary election ahead of Ibrahim Zailan but Zailani went to court to challenge the party’s decision.
The Federal High Court, Abuja, a few days to the election ruled in favour of Zailani and ordered INEC to recognise him as the APC’s candidate for the poll but the party said it had suspended Zailani and therefore the judgement of the court was not binding on it.
Declaring the result of the senatorial election, the Returning Officer, Prof Sarki Fagam, only announced that the APC polled 250,725 votes to win the election without mentioning the name of the party’s candidate for the poll.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state Ibrahim Abdullahi said there was a court judgment ordering the APC to replace Gumau with Zailani but the party had yet to comply.
