The governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in
Saturday’s Governorship election in Kogi State, Prince Abubakar Audu has
been confirmed dead.
News of Abubakar’s death filtered in following the announcement of
election results believed in many quarters to have been won by him
judging from preliminary results. However, the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) through the Returning Officer, Professor
Emmanuel Kucha, declared the Kogi State governorship election
inconclusive.
Kucha had said INEC’s decision was reached after collation of results
showed a number of cancelled votes — 49,953 — that was higher than the
margin between the leading candidate and the runner-up.
After votes in the 21 local councils were collated on Sunday, the APC
candidate, Abubakar Audu led with 240,867 votes, while the incumbent
Governor, Captain Idris Wada of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) got
199,514 votes.
A young politician who spoke to Information Nigeria on phone from
Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, while asked to confirm Audu’s death
said: “So, we heard. Rumour has it that he died of a heart attack. But
we are not sure of anything yet.”