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Former Minister of Education, Ibrahim Shekarau, was yesterday declared winner of Kano Central Senatorial ticket, thus making him the successor to his arch political rival, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso.
Shekarau’s victory into the Red chamber signals the end to the supremacy political battle between him and Kwankwaso, who displaced from All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014 as well as forcing him out of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the build up to the 2019 elections.
The incumbent Senator, Kwankwaso, had planted his crony, Ali MAdakin-Gini, as the PDP Senatorial candidate for Kano Central, as he contested the presidential ticket of the party. In the result announced by INEC, Shekarau, the APC candidate, polled 506,271 votes to defeat Kwankwaso’s protégé, Ali Madakin-Gini who scored 296,778 votes.
Signs that Shekarau was coasting home to victory emerged when he cleared all the 15 local government areas under Kano Central, including the densely populated Dala LG where the PDP candidate hailed with overall margin of 209,493 votes.
Declaring the results at about 6:30pm yesterday, the returning officer, Professor A.A Ismail, said although the election was keenly contested, Shekarau, who was also a former governor of Kano, emerged winner after scoring the highest number of lawful votes cast in the election.
Similarly, Special Assistant to President Muhammad Buhari, office of the Vice President, Ibrahim Hafizu, won the House of Representatives seat of Tarauni Federal Constituency in the state. Hafizu of the APC garnered 34,616 votes to defeat Nasiru Isa of the PDP, who polled 18,206 votes.
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