Senator Sahabi Ya’u Kaura has clinched the All Progressives Congress ticket for the Zamfara North senatorial district following a party primary election held on Monday. The exercise was conducted to comply with a judicial directive following earlier disputes over the candidate selection process.
Dr. Auwal Abdullahi Aliyu, who served as the chairman of the primary election committee, announced the final figures after the collation process. According to the results, Senator Sahabi Ya'u garnered a total of 49,176 votes to outdistance his closest challenger, Tijjani Yahaya Kaura, who finished with 9,628 votes, while Abdullahi Sani Shinkafi placed third with 6,206 votes.
What were the breakdown of the votes across the local government areas?
The election committee chairman detailed that the winner secured his votes across the four local government areas comprising the senatorial district as follows: 21,689 votes in Kaura Namoda, 19,017 in Zurmi, 3,815 in Shinkafi, and 4,655 in Birnin Magaji.
Meanwhile, the runner-up, Tijjani Yahaya Kaura, polled 6,586 votes in Kaura Namoda, 280 in Zurmi, 2,087 in Shinkafi, and 675 in Birnin Magaji. The third contender, Abdullahi Sani Shinkafi, recorded 150 votes in Kaura Namoda, 1,208 in Shinkafi, 386 in Zurmi, and 858 in Birnin Magaji.
Dr. Aliyu maintained that the exercise met all statutory guidelines and party regulations. "Having satisfied the requirements of the law and the APC Primary election guidelines, I Dr. Auwal Abdullahi the chairman of the APC Zamfara North senatorial zone primary election declared Sahabi Yau Kaura as the winner of the primary election," he stated.
How did the rerun come about?
The fresh primary election was organized following legal action initiated by Abdullahi Sani Shinkafi, who had previously dragged the All Progressives Congress, the Independent National Electoral Commission, and Senator Sahabi Ya’u before the court over alleged irregularities in the initial party primaries.
The appellate court sitting in Sokoto subsequently nullified the previous process and ordered a fresh primary election. The ruling party accepted the verdict, leading to the scheduling of Monday's rerun which once again returned Senator Sahabi Ya'u as the party's standard-bearer for the zone.