Tambuwal retains Sokoto State governorship with razor thin margin of 341 votes

GOVERNOR Aminu Tambuwal has been returned to office in Sokoto State by the slimmest of margins after the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) declared him the winner of the supplementary polls emerging victorious by just 341 votes.

Like most of Nigeria's other states, Sokoto went to the polls on March 9 to elect a governor but the election was declared inconclusive due to hiccups in some constituencies. After the March 9 election, Inec said it could not declare a winner because there were cancellations in 136 polling units across 22 local government areas, which had 75,403 registered voters.

At the time, Governor Tambuwal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was leading Ahmad Aliyu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) but the margin was less than the number of cancelled votes, prompting a supplementary poll. This re-run held on Saturday and after the collation of the results, Governor Tambuwal was declared the winner with 512,002 votes to Alhaji Aliyu's 511,661 votes.

After March 9, Governor Tambuwal had been leading with 489,558 votes to Alhaji Aliyu's 486,145 votes and it had been uncertain which way the contest would go. Earlier today, the last result came in from Kebbe Local Government Area in which the PDP secured 5,457 votes and the APC polled 7,173 votes and after this was added to the total, it gave Governor Tambuwal victory.