APC Leads in Governorship Election

The All Progressives Congress, APC, is ahead of the result released thus far in the March 18 Governorship Election as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

According to the result, the ruling party at the federal level has secured 15 states, followed in distant second by opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, with six states.

The newly formed New Nigerian Peoples Party, NNPP, takes over Kano from incumbent APC, as the only state in its kitty. 

Interestingly, the Zamfara state incumbent governor, Bello Matawalle, lost his re-election bid to PDP's Dauda Lawal. The party also grabbed Bauchi just as the party took over in Plateau state from the APC. 

Conversely, APC took over in Benue and Sokoto from incumbent PDP.

In the main, APC retained the ballot Katsina, Jigawa, Gombe, Lagos, Kwara, Niger, Yobe, Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Ogun, Benue, Kaduna and Borno as announced by INEC. 

The PDP secured Plateau and Bauchi while it retained Oyo, Delta, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states. The new third force, the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP made its entrance felt by grabbing Kano stare from the APC. 

Collation of results from Abia and Enugu states has been put on hold following a disagreement between the Labour Party and the PDP over declared results from some council areas. Further collation will not be in until INEC reviews the process of the contentious balloting in parts of both states.

The results are coming amidst confounding development that is unfolding particularly in Adamawa state. Incumbent governor, PDP's Ahmadu Finitri, is having the fight of his life as he battles the trail-blazing rival, Hajiya Aisha Dahiru-Binani. 

Earlier reports indicated that the APC candidate led the incumbent in the 21 council areas were results have been collated, leaving just Fufure. However, Finitri reportedly made nonsense of her lead as he worked his numbers up, winning Binani to second. Whereas the incumbent reportedly scored a total of 421,522 votes, the APC candidate scored 390,275 votes. However, the outcome was later declared inconclusive by INEC.