APC wins Garki/Babura seat as defence minister Badaru delivers polling unit
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has won the Garki/Babura federal constituency bye-election in Jigawa state.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Mukhtar Rabiu, the APC candidate, winner of the poll after he secured 38,449 votes.
His closest rival, Isah Auwalu Manzo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), polled 13,519 votes, while Sabo Salisu of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) got 2,931 votes.
The seat became vacant after Isa Dogonyaro, who represented the constituency in the House of Representatives, died in 2024.
Mohammed Badaru, minister of defence and immediate past governor of Jigawa, cast his ballot at polling unit 002 in Babura Kofar Arewa Primary School. At the unit, APC polled 188 votes against PDP’s 164 votes.
The result corrected earlier reports that suggested APC lost in the minister’s polling unit after figures from polling unit 001, located in the same school, were mistakenly tagged as results from polling unit 002.
Suwaiba Ahmad, minister of state for education who also hails from Jigawa, voted in the election. She commended the peaceful conduct of the exercise and expressed optimism that APC would win.
The election was conducted under heavy security presence, with personnel of the police, civil defence, immigration service, and other agencies deployed across the constituency.
