Ninety one thousand, eight hundred and twenty nine (91,829 ) eligible voters in 142 polling units across Kebbi state on Saturday decided who will pilot the affairs of the state in the next four years.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the elections inconclusive following the cancellation of results in polling units in 20 out of 21 local government areas of the state.

However, on Sunday, the candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) Dr. Nasiru Idris was declared winner of the March 18th,2023 Governorship Election after the rerun of the Election on Saturday 16th April, 2023.

With Dr. Idris’ victory APC now have 20 governors-Elect, Peoples Democratic Party has 13, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has one, Labour Party (LP), one, New Nigeria Progressive Party(NNPP) has one.

Dr. Idris, who is the immediate past National President of the Nigeria Union of Teachers polled 409,255 votes to defeat the People Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, retired Major General Aminu Bande who scored 369, 940 votes.

Before Saturday’s supplementary election, Alhaji Idris scored 388,258 votes while General Bande polled 342,980 votes.

The election was declared inconclusive because the difference of 45,278 votes that separates them is lower than the number of eligible voters in the areas, based on the Permanent Voter’s Card collected, which stand at 91,829.

The Returning Officer, Professor Yusuf Said of the Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto, said Dr. Nasiru Idris having polled the highest votes has been declared winner and returned elected.

Alhaji Abubakar Shehu , the Campaign Director General (DG) of PDP Governorship Election said his party, the PDP , would challenge the election results at the Election Petition Tribunal.

Alhaji Shehu said a team of lawyers have been assembled and would be fully briefed on the way forward.

The contests are largely between the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), standard bearer, Alhaji Nasir Idris, and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) General Aminu Bande.

Elections were also held in 23 units for the Kebbi north senatorial district of the state and 10 House of Assembly and two federal constituencies in Arewa-Dandi and Koko-Besse.

The battle for the soul of Kebbi state is seen as a battle between two political gurus, Govevrnor Atiku Bagudu of APC and former governor, Adamu Aliero of the PDP.

Prior to the presidential and National Assembly elections on the 25 of February, the two parties were in upbeat moods and attacked each other relentlessly.

While the PDP accused the APC of not fulfilling its campaign promises, the APC accused the PDP of being part of the mess since most of its members were in the APC before defecting.

Although Alhaji Idris and General Bande are the governorship candidates, the contest on Saturday was seen as between Governor Bagudu and Senator Aliero, who were political allies until this election cycle.

When Senator Aliero left the Senate in 2007 to join the late President Umar Yar’adua’s cabinet as minister, he supported Governor Bagudu to take over his Senate seat. In 2015, he also supported Governor Bagudu to become governor while Senator Aliero returned to the Senate under the APC.

But when it became obvious that at the end of Governor Bagudu’s tenure, he would vie for the Kebbi central senatorial seat, Senator Aliero dumped the APC and joined the PDP.

Senator Aliero did not, however, leave alone. He took another incumbent senator, Yahaya Abdullahi, and other federal lawmakers with him.

Political pundits claim the outcomes of the presidential and National Assembly elections affected the APC in the governorship election on March 18th this year.

Before the election, many thought PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, did not stand a chance against the APC candidate, Bola Tinubu, in Kebbi.

That permutation was largely due to the influence of Governor Bagudu, who is a very strong ally of the former Lagos governor.

But Senator Aliero led the PDP to victory. The opposition party got 285,175 votes while the APC got 248,088 votes.

Senator Aliero also defeated Governor Bagudu in the senatorial election in Kebbi central district. Senator Aliero polled 126,588 votes while Governor Bagudu got 92,389, the former governor beating the incumbent with a margin of 34,199 votes.

Another surprise was around the corner for the APC when a debutant, Garba Maidoki of PDP defeated veteran parliamentarian, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah, with 75,732 votes to 70,785 votes in the Kebbi South senatorial race

The results gave the PDP the zeal to fight in the 18 March election. On that day, the APC won a majority in the state House of Assembly. The state has 24 assembly members but elections were suspended in 10 constituencies.

Out of the 14 that were announced, APC won 11 seats while the PDP won only three. The 11 returning APC members can have an impact in the governorship election and swing the tide towards their party.

One factor that will work in the favour of PDP is the protracted crisis in the APC in Kebbi State that led to the exit of Senators Aliero and Yahaya with their supporters.

INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr. Festus Okoye,Esq, had during the week announced that three National Commissioners are in Kebbi for the governorship supplementary.

His words :”We also have one senatorial Election, two Federal constituency elections and eight State Assembly elections in Kebbi.The commission deployed two national commissioners to Adamawa, one to Sokoto state and one to Rivers.

“We have deployed additional directing staff and other categories of staff from contiguous states to states where we have governorship and senatorial elections,” Mr Okoye said.

He said that INEC was also deploying most of its staff as supervisory presiding officers and registration area collation officers.

“Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will be fully deployed for the election. We have reconfigured the BVAS for optimum performance.”

Mr Okoye said that INEC resident electoral commissioners had held stakeholder engagements with political parties and civil society groups.