PDP sweeps Rivers, Gombe polls

It has been an outstanding weekend for the crisis-ridden Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as it emerged victorious in the Rivers state legislative rerun election and the Gombe state local government poll.

The leadership struggle between Ahmed Makarfi, former governor of Kaduna state, and Ali-Modu Sheriff, former governor of Borno, has created tension in the opposition party.

An appeal court in Port Harcourt has recognised Sheriff as the legitimate chairman, but Makarfi vowed to proceed to the supreme court.

But on Sunday, the party recieved good news.

In Rivers, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the opposition party winner in one state constituency and one federal constituency, while PDP won all the 11 council chairmanship seats and 114 councillorship positions.

Jeremiah Sola-Omotola, returning officer in Etche/Omuma federal constituency in Rivers, declared Jerome Eke of the PDP as winner.

Sola-Omotola said Eke secured 15,221 votes to defeat Ogbonna Nwuke of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who got 6,220 votes.

The PDP also won the Etche state constituency II election with 4,162 votes, while the APC garnered 1,618 votes.

In Gombe, Caleb Maina, chief returning officer and chairman of the Gombe State Independent Electoral Commission (GOSIEC) said PDP won all the 114 councillorship and 11 chairmanship positions.

Maina listed those who won the chairmanship positions as Jani Bello (Akko), Bakari Kaltuma (Balanga), Faruk Lawining (Billiri), Abdulqadir Rsheed (Dukku), Ausuf Ibrahim (Funakaye), and Sani Dogarai (Gombe).

Others were Abubakar Danzaria (Kaltungo), Hassan Marafa (Kwami), Hamza Dadum (Nafada), Danladi Garba (Shongom) and Haruna Samanja (Yamaltu-Deba).

He said the law establishing GOSIEC had empowered presiding officers to announce those who won as councillors at the polling units.

“Respective results for the councillors election had already been announced, which indicated that PDP won all the councillor seats in all the 114 wards of the 11 local government areas,” he said.

He added that the state chief judge had already established a panel to entertain petitions from those dissatisfied with the outcome of the election.