PDP Wins in Gombe as Violence Mars By-election 

Last Saturday, some people suspected to be political thugs stormed two polling units with dangerous weapons to disrupt proceedings during the Dukku-North state constituency by-election where the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Hon. Saidu Kawuwa Malala, emerged winner.

According to media checks, though the results of the two polling units, 19 and 23 where there was violence and unit 24 were cancelled in Malala ward, it however did not prevent the PDP candidate from winning the election after polling 7,060 votes to beat his closest rival from the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji A Inuwa, who polled 4,024 votes from the entire six wards of the constituency.

The Collation Officer for Malala ward, Dr. Musa Dahiru, while presenting his results at the constituency collation centre at Government Secondary School (GSS), Malala, Sunday explained that thugs in two Hilux vans stormed the polling units threatening election officials to give them ballot papers thus creating chaos and disrupting the electoral procedure

Dahiri noted that one person sustained serious injuries after being stabbed with a knife just as the results were cancelled.

In unit 24 of the same ward, Musa revealed that the voting machine was faulty and as such, details of some voters did not match what was on their Permanent Voters Card (PVC’s). Following this confusion, the results from the ward showed that there was over voting in the unit and the result was also cancelled.