Bauchi Rerun: PDP’s Jatau Wins Zaki Federal Constituency Seat

Bauchi Rerun: PDP’s Jatau Wins Zaki Federal Constituency Seat

By Segun Awofadeji

Bauchi State office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) has declared Mohammed Auwal Jatau of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bauchi State as the winner of Zaki Federal Constituency.

Announcing the result of the election, the Returning officer, Professor Ahmed Kutama,b declared him winner after getting a total of 15,405 votes against his rival Umar Tata of the APC who got 15,307 votes.

Jatau ran for the seat in the supplementary election that took place on Saturday following the orders of the Court of Appeal in respect of the last general elections

THiSDAY reports that Jatau who contested for the same seat during the 2019 general elections is the current Commissioner for Health in Bauchi State.

The supplementary and rerun elections were as a result of the Court Judgements that annulled the elections conducted last year and ordered for supplementary election in Zaki and rerun in Gamawa.

Hon Awal Jatau of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Tata Umar of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and 19 other candidates contested in the supplementary polls to occupy the seat of Federal House of Representatives for Zaki Constituency.

Meanwhile, the supplementary/re-run elections in two Local Government Areas of Bauchi state recorded large turnout of voters.

Our correspondent who monitored the elections reports that women voters, particularly turned out to cast their votes during the supplementary and re-run elections for the two vacant seats in the House of Representatives for Zaki and Gamawa federal constituencies of Bauchi State.

While supplementary election was conducted in Zaki Local Government Area by INEC, rerun election in was held in Gamawa Local Government Area.

THISDAY checks revealed that the exercise witnessed large turnout of voters in Sakwa , Murmur North and Mainako in Zaki.

Mohammed Hassan, Presiding Officer (PO) in-charge of Daladagum unit in Dugunmi town said that voting commenced at 8.20am on Saturday.

Our Correspondent who monitored the elections in the two LGAs of Zaki and Gamawa observed that women voters trooped out in their numbers to excise their civic responsibility to elect their preferred candidates.

Some of the women who spoke said that they were properly mobilized by their husbands to come out and cast their votes stressing the importance of participating in the Electoral process.

In an interview with Journalists during the exercise, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Ibrahim Abdullahi, commended the process saying that it was an improvement on the last election considering the large turnout of voters especially women.

The REC added that there was no logistics issue as all the materials were distributed in good time and they got to the various polling units in good time which made the exercise hitch-free.

On some reported Electoral issues, he said that as at the time of the interview he had not received any negative reports stressing that, “all the Electoral personnel have been well briefed on what to do in case of any problem, I believe that I will get proper briefs from them and will let you know”.

The REC also commended security agencies for providing adequate security in the two LGAs saying that, “the security operation is very commendable and I have confidence that the end will be better”.

In a similar development, voting commenced early in most of the 287 voting units visited in Gamawa.

Madaki Gololo of the PDP and 20 other candidates contested for the Gamawa House of Representatives seat, while Mohammed Garba of the APC had earlier been excluded from the race by an election tribunal.

It would be recalled that the Court of Appeal, Jos Division, on November 14, 2019, had sacked All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker, Rep. Umar Tata, representing Zaki Federal Constituency.

The same court had nullified the election of Garba Gololo of APC representing Gamawa Federal Constituency of Bauchi State, and disqualified him for presenting forged certificates to contest in the election.

The court also, in a consensus judgment, ordered INEC to conduct re-run election in the area within 90 days, excluding APC or its candidate from participating.

Related Articles