ADP, LP Win Senate, House of Representatives Re-run Polls in Plateau

Seriki Adinoyi in Jos

The candidate of Action Democratic Party (ADP), Prince Pam Mwadkon Dachungyang, has been declared the winner of the Plateau North senatorial re-run election, having polled 122,442 votes to defeat his closes rival, Yakub Muhammad Safiu of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), who got 53,980 votes.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Returning Officer for the senatorial re-run elections, Prof. Nestor Chagok, while declaring the results in the early hours of Monday, said Dachungyang of the ADP polled 122,442 votes to defeat his closest rival, Safiu of the NNPP, who got 53,980 votes.

He said: “Prince Pam Mwadkon Dachungyang of the ADP having certified the requirements of the law is hereby declared winner and is returned elected.”

The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Christopher Musa Giwa, polled 39,132 votes, while Gyang Zi of the Labour Party (LP) got 33,243 votes.

Similarly, the candidate of the LP, Daniel Asama was declared winner of the House of Representatives re-run election for Jos North/Bassa Federal Constituency which was conducted last Saturday.

The Returning Officer, Prof. James Garba, declared that Asama was the winner having polled 66,422 votes to defeat his closest rival, Mohammed Gwani of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), who got 61,670 votes.

Late last year, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja had nullified the election of Musa Agah, who won the House of Representatives seat, and Simon Mwadkon, who won Plateau North Senatorial seat, both of the PDP and ordered a re-run election for all parties within 90 days.

The court said that the PDP lacked the structure to field candidates for the elections.

But INEC excluded the PDP from the ballot papers on the ground that the reason the election was nullified was because the party had no valid structure. But the PDP only realized its exclusion from the ballots 48 hours before the re-run.

The party then mobilized and threw its weight behind the ADP for the Senate seat and LP for the House of Representatives seat. 

This was to ensure that the main opposition party in the state, the APC, did not win any of the seats.