The All Progressives Congress (APC) has won all the chairmanship and coucillor seats at the just concluded Local Government election across the 17 LGs of Yobe State.
The results of the poll were announced by the Chairman of the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC), Mr Jauro Abdu, in Damaturu, the state’s capital.
Mr Abdu noted that the election was conducted peacefully throughout the 178 electoral wards in the state.
“I want to thank security agents, electorate, NGOs, the media and party officials among other stakeholders for the success of the election,” the chairman said.
On non-participation of some major opposition parties in the election, Mr Jauro said: “It’s not my duty to ensure participation of all political parties in the contest.
“We had a stakeholders’ meeting before the election and in that meeting, all of them accepted to participate in the election only to withdraw later.
“In Potiskum Council Area for instance, one of the contestants withdrew on the election day. So that’s their problem and not the concern of the SIEC”.
Faith And Support For APC
On his part, Governor Ibrahim Gaidam commended the people of the state for reaffirming their faith in the APC.
A statement issued by his spokesman, Abdullahi Bego, said that the governor “is very pleased and hugely grateful that the people of the state have reaffirmed their faith and support for the All Progressives Congress (APC) by electing all the party’s candidates in last Saturday’s (February 11) Local Government election.
“That all the APC chairmanship candidates won in the election shows the degree to which the APC manifesto remains an appealing document to most of the people of the state”.
Governor Gaidam was also pleased that a significant number of registered voters across Yobe State participated in the election and voted for the candidates of their choice.
“His Excellency, Governor Gaidam strongly believes that given the security and other challenges that the state has experienced in the recent past, last weekend’s polls, which were commendably peaceful, can give us hope that normalcy has returned and that we can take pride in our capacity as a people to collectively organise and participate in elections at the grassroots level,” the statement added.
The governor has promised to work with the elected chairmen and their councillors, to go farther in his determination to improve the people’s living conditions at the grassroots.
The election observers also applauded the conduct of the poll and commended the Yobe State government for organising the election, despite the security problem bedeviling the state while urging other states to emulate Yobe.
The spokesman of the observers, Mr Victor Kalu, said: “We observed that law turnouts in some polling stations was based on non-enforcement of the vehicular movement and we want to recommend that such laws be enforced subsequently.
“On the whole, the Yobe State government under the leadership of Governor Gaidam has done very well to have conduct election on three occasions, despite the insurgency affecting the state”.
