Kano LG Polls: NNPP Clears All 44 Chairmanship, 484 Councillorship Seats

Amidst controversy over recent Court ruling, the Kano Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC) has declared the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) winner of the Local Government elections in all 44 council areas.

The KANSIEC’s Chairman, Professor Sani Lawan Malunfashi, who announced the results at the commission’s headquarters in Kano, said, “Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC) had exercised and observed its Constitutional mandates of planning, organizing, coordinating, observing, and conducting Local Government Elections in Kano State of Nigeria.

“The exercise was largely peaceful and successful in all ramifications. The Commission therefore deeply appreciates the roles played by the critical stakeholders, notably Security Agencies, Media organizations, Leaders of Political Parties, Civil Society organizations, Religious Leaders, Community Leaders, Youth and Women organizations, towards the actualization of grassroots democracy in the State.”

Professor Malunfashifurther said; “The Commission is also profoundly grateful to the good people of Kano State for their collective support, prayers, and expression of positive emotions.

“The peaceful conduct of the exercise is a doubtless manifestation of public acceptability of the exercise in terms of credibility, fairness, and decency.

“Six Political Parties participated: AA, AAC, ACCORD, ADC, APM, and NNPP. NNPP won all 44 Local Government Chairmanship and 484 Councillorship positions contested.”

Earlier in the day, Governor Kabir Yusuf had expressed satisfaction with the peaceful conduct of the people across the state while speaking to newsmen after casting his vote at Gwale, his local government area.

The governor, who described the elections as the freest in Kano’s election history, also expressed hope that those elected would serve the people’s interests.

He said, “When it comes to elections, there shouldn’t be any impunity and we should ensure that people are allowed to freely exercise their franchise. I am appealing to the judiciary to continue to be neutral when it comes to elections, as it is unhealthy for our judiciary to be partisan.

“Even though the Kano State Government is the only Government that came into office on the platform of NNPP, we should not be intimidated, as the people of Kano are peace-loving, but if they are pushed to the wall, they can react.

“We’ve seen what happened in Rivers, so we took proactive measures to ensure that a similar scenario does not happen in Kano. I want to appeal to the Opposition to always accept defeat, as we have the upper hand in terms of voter support.”

However, reports indicated that the local government polls were marred by low turnout of voters and late arrival of electoral materials, even as voting was delayed due to the late arrival of materials, while only a few voters turned up at some of the polling units visited in the state capital.