Mr Bala Ali of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has won the bye-election for Dass Constituency in the Bauchi State House of Assembly.
His victory followed the conclusion of voting and counting of ballots in the election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the seat which had been declared vacant.
INEC’s Returning Officer for the election, Professor Ahmed Mohammed of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University announced Ali as the winner of the poll on Saturday at the collation centre in the state.
According to him, the APC candidate polled a total of 12,299 votes to defeat Lawal Umar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 11,062 votes.
The result was announced in a rowdy and tensed atmosphere after the agent of the PDP raised an objection to the results announced.
While the PDP agent claimed that the exercise was disrupted and people left the premises, the agent of the APC insisted that nobody left the area.
In his response, the returning officer insisted on reading the results and asked the agents to put their complaints in writing.
Channels Television monitored the election during which an incident of an alleged attempt to buy votes was reported.
The incident involved a former Head of Service in Bauchi State who was arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Although the suspect’s name was not revealed, the government official was said to be making an attempt to commit the crime and not caught in the act.
He was, however, released on bail after fulfilling the conditions of the EFCC and asked to report to the zonal office of the anti-graft agency in Gombe State at a later date.
In his reaction, the counsel to the government official, Barrister Muktar, stressed that his client was arrested based on a suspicion that he had money in his car on the day of an election.
