Muhammad Kabir The ruling New Nigeria People’s Party,(NNPP) has won all the 44 Local Government Chairmanship and 484 Councillorship positions contested in Kano in the Local Councils Election conducted yesterday.
Announcing the results, the State Independent Electoral Commission, (KANSIEC), Chairman, Professor Sani Lawan Malumfashi, said Six political parties participated, that includes AA, AAC, ACCORD, ADC, APM, and NNPP.
He said the Commission had exercised and observed its Constitutional mandates of planning, organizing, coordinating, observing and conducting Local Government Election in Kano State of Nigeria and it was so peaceful, free and fair without any hitches.
“The exercise had been largely peaceful and successful in all ramifications. The Commission therefore deeply appreciates the roles played by the critical stakeholders, notably Security Agencies, Media organizations, Leaders of Political Parties, Civil Society organizations, Religious Leaders, Community Leaders, Youth and Women organizations, towards the actualization of grassroots democracy in the state.”
“The Commission is also profoundly grateful to the good people of Kano State for their collective support, prayers and expression of positive emotions.”
Malumfashi added that the peaceful conduct of the exercise was a doubtless manifestation of public acceptability of the exercise in terms of credibility, fairness and decency.
Yesterday, Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State, said that the conduct of the State Local Government Councils Election, was so far, the freest in the country, despite series of collaborative efforts to truncate it by some Federal Government Agents and the Judiciary.
The governor, who after casting his votes at Chanranchi Polling Unit, yesterday, spoke to about 36 states Independent Electoral Commissions Chairmen, who were observers of the election.
He said that, “the impunity and the intimidation they have visited on him and his government was pushing Kano to the walls.”
He added: “What some people in Abuja want is to create chaos, and destroy Kano, but we have been so accommodating and peaceful to all they are doing. But they should know that when Kano is on fire, the whole nation would be plunged into uncertainty.”
“It has never happened that the Judiciary is so partisan like in Kano but they should know that with the Judiciary becoming partisan, Nigeria would suffer and nothing will work again.
“I am appealing to the judiciary to be neutral when it comes to elections. It is not good for our judiciary to be partisan.
“Although Kano State government is the only government, which came into office on the platform of NNPP, we shouldn’t be intimidated. People of Kano are peace loving people but if they push us to the wall, we can react.”
“We’ve seen what happened in Rivers. So, we took proactive measures in ensuring that similar scenario does not happen in Kano. I want to appeal to the opposition to always accept defeat as we have upper hand in terms of voters’ support”, he added.
Speaking on behalf of State Independent Electoral Commissioners, who monitored the elections, Aliyu Suleiman Sokoto, the State Electoral Commission Chairman lauded the peaceful conduct of the Local Government elections in Kano .
He said, so far, the election was peaceful and voters were trooping out in lines, exercising their franchise without any problems.
Yusuf commended the peaceful conduct of the chairmanship and councillorship elections across the 44 local government areas in the state and the solidarity of the 36 States Independent Electoral Commission Chairmen for observing the election.
Yusuf made the remark while speaking to journalists at the headquarters of the state Independent Electoral Commission,(KANSIEC) shortly after casting his vote.
But the All Progressives Congress(APC) in Kano State said the local government elections conducted by the State Independent Electoral Commission(KANSIEC) was illegal.
A chieftain of the party, Rabi’u Bichi, made the remark in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) yesterday in Kano.
“The party’s stance is informed by a court order by Justice Simon Amobede of the Federal High Court, Kano, which still stands, and which has rendered the election null and void.
“The judge ruled that the leadership of KANSIEC was partisan and biased towards the ruling New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in the state.
“Since the judgment has not been appealed, the APC considers any outcome of the election illegal,” he said.
The APC chieftain also pointed to a recent Federal High Court judgment that quashed all NNPP chairmanship candidates for the elections, which he said had further reinforced the party’s claims that the election is illegal.
He, however, urged all members of the party to exercise restraint and await the final outcome of the legal moves being made by the party to challenge the conduct of the polls.
He stressed that all democrats and advocates of democracy were expected to respect Friday’s Kano High Court judgement, which authorised the election to proceed.
Earlier on Friday, Kano State High Court No. 15 affirmed KANSIEC’s jurisdiction to conduct the Kano State local government polls held yesterday.
