Tag: Loko

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Returning Officer for Abaji Area Council, Gabriel Mordi, on Sunday said it will not be legitimate to declare any of the APC aspirants (Muhammad Loko and Umar Abdullahi) as the winner of the election following pending court matter.

“We cannot declare a candidate winner in Abaji because the winning party does not have a candidate here, the case is still in court,” he said.

Mordi noted that a winner will be announced after the Supreme Court decision in the coming weeks.

In the election, the APC scored 7,280 votes to defeat Yahaya Garba of the PDP, who polled 4,063 votes.

A total of 11,522 voters were accredited by the local government for the poll. Out of these, 11,390 were counted as valid votes while 107 were rejected votes.

APC DISPUTE IN ABUJA

It would be recalled that Loko had been declared the winner of April 23, 2021, chairmanship primary in the area.

His name was controversially substituted by the APC with that of Abdullahi who was later recognized by INEC as the party’s flag bearer until recently.

Dissatisfied with this, Loko approached an FCT High Court in Gudu district. The court on November 16, 2021, ruled in his favour and sacked Abdullahi.

The latter appealed the ruling. However, the appeal court in January affirmed Loko as the APC chairmanship candidate for the February 12 poll in Abaji.

Abdullahi appealed to the Supreme Court whose ruling on the matter is now being awaited.