Electoral Officials of the Jigawa State Independent Electoral Commission (JISIEC) were held hostage in Kiyako Electoral Ward in Birnin Kudu LGA for more than 20 hours following the sudden disappearance of the Returning Officer to declare the results.
Daily Trust reports that the Returning Officer for the ward, Ja’afar Umar, allegedly disappeared on Saturday evening, when it was time to collate and announce the results of the councillorship position for the ward.
Birnin Kudu is one of the six local government areas that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) fielded candidates for the election in the state. Others are Hadejia, Malammadori, Auyo, Kirikasama and Kiyawa.
For Kiyako Ward, Yunusa Abdul of PDP contested against the outgoing councillor, Yusuf Umar.
However, following the absence of Umar to order the collation and announcement of the results, the remaining officials numbering about 23, including a female ad hoc staff, who was said to be a daughter of the current vice chairman of the LGA were locked up in the Staff Room of Government Junior Secondary School, Kiyako, the collation centre for the ward.
Daily Trust gathered that efforts by security agencies to ‘rescue’ the ‘detained’ officials proved abortive as the aggrieved people insisted that the collation be made and results declared in their presence.
The headquarters of the JISIEC in Dutse dispatched a fresh team led by the Local Government Electoral Officer, Balarabe Umar, with reinforcement of security agents led by Abdulkadir Zubairu an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), to provide security.
Balarabe Umar, while announcing the results on behalf of Ja’afar Umar declared that Yunusa Abdul of the PDP scored 3,952 votes to defeat the APC candidate, Yusuf Umar, who scored 680 votes, and was declared winner of the councillorship poll for the Ward.
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