APC picks up another senate seat after Inec gives certificate of return to Bauchi's Lawal Gumau

NIGERIA'S ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has gained another seat in the senate after the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) presented a certificate of return to Lawal Gumau declaring him duly elected in the Bauchi South Senatorial District.

Following Nigeria's National Assembly elections on February 23, elections into eight of the 109 senate seats were declared unresolved due to electoral issues and court orders. In Bauchi State, the Bauchi South Senatorial District seat was affected by the fact that the party did not field a candidate for the elections

Senator Gumau, who was elected in a by-election in August 2018 had his candidacy for the 2019 polls nullified by a court order, do despite the fact that the APC won, Inec could not issue him with a certificate of return. In the election, the APC scored 250,725 votes, while the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Garba Dahiru, came second with 175,527 votes.

According to Inec, the candidature of Senator Gumau was nullified by a court, prior to the election, with an order that the party should substitute the candidate. This was because a federal high court in Abuja had ordered that Senator Gumau be substituted with another candidate, Ibrahim Zailani, who had challenged the outcome of the APC primaries in the state.

However, the APC had refused to substitute the names and the elections went ahead with the matter still unresolved. After a long legal battle Senator Gumau was finally confirmed as duly elected and has now received his certificate of return from Inec in Abuja.

He said that his victory during the election and the court hearing was down to an act of God and the passionate support he enjoyed from the people of constituency who prayed fervently for him. Sulaiman Lalaye, the senator's spokesman, added that his second return to the National Assembly would serve as an opportunity for the senator to carry out more constituency projects that would impact positively on the constituents.

With Senator Gumau being returned, the SAPC now has 66 seats, while the PDP has 39, while the Young Peoples Party has one seat. Three seats are yet to be decided as they are still subject to legal wranglings.