With the conclusion at the weekend of rerun elections in disputed areas, all the 36 governors have emerged.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has 22 states, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) controls 13 and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) is in charge in one state.

After the rerun, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared PDP candidates Darius Ishaku (Taraba) and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) as governors-elect.

APC’s Rochas Okorocha defeated House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha to retain his seat as Imo State governor.

Ishaku was declared winner of the hard-fought governorship election in Taraba State. He won in 10 local government areas with accumulated votes of 369,318.

INEC Returning Officer Prof. Ahmed Kyari said Hajia Aisha Jummai Alhassan of APC, the only woman governorship candidate, scored 275,984 votes.

Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate David Sabo Kente came a distant third, with 29,985 votes.

PDP won the supplementary election with 52,120 votes. APC got 13,598 votes. PDP won nine of the 10 local governments where the rerun was held.

APC won only Jalingo where the rerun took place in one polling unit.

In all, 127,125 registered voters participated in the exercise in 159 polling units across 10 local government areas: Bali Zing, Takum, Yorro, Donga, Wukari, Ussa, Karim Lamido, Kurmi and Jalingo.

A breakdown of the result is as follows: Bali (APC-910, PDP-5,551), Donga (APC-9,885, PDP-37,375), Jalingo (APC-362, PDP-90), Karimlamido (APC-459, PDP-2,091), Kurmi (APC-49, PDP-314), Takum (APC-560, PDP-3,114), Ussa (APC-528, PDP-1,198), Wukari (APC-728, PDP-1,507), Yorro (APC-34, PDP-469), Zing (APC-83, PDP-411).

In the first poll, Ishaku, an architect and former Minister of State for Power, Environment and Niger Delta Affairs, was leading with 54,812 votes. He won the election in nine of the 16 local government areas with 317,198 votes. Alhassan, a lawyer and senator representing Northern Taraba District, trailed with 262,386 votes garnered in six local government areas.

There were 681,166 total valid votes cast in the first and supplementary polls.

Ishiaku extended the hand of fellowship to everyone, including his co-contenders from other political parties.

He spoke to reporters at his official residence in Jalingo soon after INEC declared him winner.

“The candidates of other political parties could not win, not because they lack the wherewithal. But because Taraba people spoke through the ballot, with enthusiasm and seriousness, that they want me for the job.

“I wish to pay tributes to Sen. Aisha Alhassan of the APC and my brother David Sabo Kente of the SDP and their running mates. They all did well. They are not losers or vanquished.

“The doors of my administration shall be opened to them for participatory governance, wise counselling and or constructive criticism,” he said.

But Hajia Alhassan rejected the result.  She told a news conference in Jalingo that the entire process was a “daylight robbery’’ and that her party would challenge the results at the elections petitions tribunal.

“The combined governorship elections in Taraba were characterised by violence, massive rigging, ballot snatching and abuse of the card readers in substantial parts of the state by the PDP and their allies,” she said.

Senator Alhassan contended that results ascribed to Wukari, Donga, Takum, Sardauna, Zing, Yorro, Kurmi and some parts of Ussa, Karim-Lamido, Bali, Ardo-Kola and Lau local government areas did not reflect the true situation.

She said all the complaints on the irregularities and abuse of the election guidelines were promptly reported to INEC, but that no action was taken.

In Abia, INEC declared Ikpeazu winner with 264,713 votes to defeat the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)  candidate, Dr Alex Otti, who polled 180,882 votes at the end of the re-run election in nine local government areas.

Ikpeazu hails from Obingwa Local Government Area in Abia South Senatorial District.

He holds a Ph.D in Chemistry and taught at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology before going into politics.

He was the Assistant General Manager of the Abia State Environmental Sanitation Agency in charge of Aba until November 2014, when he resigned his appointment to join the governorship race.

Chief Ahamdi Nweke, the APGA agent in the supplementary elections questioned the authenticity of the result from Obingwa Local Government Area.

Raising objections to the results of Saturday’s re-run election in nine local government areas, Nweke said that the Obingwa result sheet bore the stamp of Umuahia local government areas.

The result showed that PDP polled 82,240 votes as against 1,952 scored by APGA.

Nweke pleaded repeatedly with the Returning Officer, Prof. Benjamin Ozumba, to “take a look at the result sheet, which is with you here”.

“All I am asking is for the returning officer to look at the result sheet from Obingwa in the presence of the two INEC national commissioners and commissioners of police.

“The result sheet bears the stamp of Umuahia, which is in another senatorial district; please show it for the world to see,’’ Nweke, a lawyer, said.

He also protested the result from Osisioma polling area, saying that the figures in the results sheet were at variance with the results from the polling units.

The result sheets from the polling units were later presented to the collation officers for verification vis-à-vis the collated results.

The APGA agent, who identified himself simply as Uzor, claimed that the results from Osisioma were not collated at the ward level, in spite of his protest.

Uzor claimed that the electoral materials were forcibly conveyed to the local government collation centre where he was barred by security agents from entering.

“The state returning officer wanted to confirm the allegation with copies from other agents but no other agent was available at the collation centre.’’

Uzor added that the returning officer proceeded to announce the disputed results as collated.

APGA National Chairman Chief Victor Umeh assured the people that they were going to recover their “stolen” mandate from the PDP at the tribunal.

Umeh said what happened was a charade and should not be allowed to stand.

Umeh, other party chiefs and governorship candidate Dr Alex Otti said that they asked INEC to cancel the results of three local governments of Obingwa, Osisioma and Isiala Ngwa North, which they refused to do.

They said there were no elections in those three council areas during the April 11 election, stressing that there were irregularities which include failure of card readers and ballot box snatching.

The APGA chief said  Prof Ozumba, had earlier cancelled the results from those areas only for him to reverse himself when PDP chieftains stormed the collation centre.

Umeh said that the party is rejecting the result of the election not because it could not afford to lose an election but because the election was not credible as it was full of fraud ranging from ballot box snatching to card reader failure.

Otti said that the people voted for him freely with one voice, “as they want the wind of change that is sweeping across the country to touch them too”.

Otti called on the people to remain calm, saying: “The election may have come but not gone as it is not over yet. We are going to recover our stolen mandate from those who stole them at the tribunal.”

President Goodluck Jonathan has been urged to rein in government officials whose actions may cause problems for the incoming Muhammadu Buhari administration.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) alleged that there are reported allegations of:

•last-minute looting of the nation’s resources, hurried recruitment into the public service and

•rushed privatisation of key financial institutions.

In a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said apart from the instances of such cases that had been reported by the media, it has been inundated with calls and messages by concerned Nigerians, alerting it to the unscrupulous actions of some Jonathan Administration officials.

It said while the Jonathan Administration remains in office till midnight of May 28th and governance in the country will not stop because a new President has been elected, it is incumbent upon the outgoing Administration not to create any more problems for the incoming government than it had already done, or to tie the new government’s hands through some suspicious actions.

APC said while it is true that the incoming Buhari Administration will not get itself bogged down by an endless probe of the activities of the Jonathan Administration, all actions taken since the result of the May 28 presidential election was announced may come under the searchlight.

‘’For example, the National Council on Privatisation, which is headed by the Vice President, has just approved the financial bid opening for transaction advisers for the privatisation of the three Development Finance Institutions in the country – the Bank of Agriculture, Bank of Industry and Nigeria Commodity Exchange. The question is: What is the rationale for rushing this exercise with just weeks left for this administration?

‘’Also, there have been reports, yet unrefuted, of a planned hurried recruitment into the Nigeria Immigration Service, after a previous attempt ended in a national tragedy and the fleecing of innocent job seekers by mindless federal government officials. Apart from the fact that this last-minute recruitment is suspect, it is irregular.

‘’The Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services Board (CDFIPSB) is only empowered to recruit, promote and discipline only senior officers (levels 8 and above). The power to recruit, promote and discipline junior officers is vested in the different services, in

this case the Nigeria Immigration Service.

‘’Therefore, the recruitment exercise now being conducted by the Federal Civil Service under the auspices of the Presidential Committee to Assist on Immigration Recruitment usurps the functions of the Board as it relates to recruitment of Senior Officers (level 08) and that of

the Immigration Service as it relates to Junior Officers (levels 07 and below),’’ the party said.

It also called attention to a published report that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Mohammed, plans to use the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) to carry out a secret employment of no fewer than 500 workers before the end of  this month.

‘’We do not know if this report, as well as others, is true. But if indeed these rushed privatisations and hurried recruitment exercises – in the twilight of the Jonathan Administration – are true, they raise serious questions concerning the reasons behind such actions. We are therefore compelled to call on President Jonathan to call his Administration officials to order, lest they engage in actions that can later embarrass his Administration.

‘’This is against the backdrop of the precarious situation into which the Jonathan Administration has plunged the nation’s economy, no thanks to years of ceaseless and unprecedented profligacy by the outgoing Administration, as well as mind-boggling acts of corruption and looting of the public treasury by some Administration officials and their collaborators,’’ APC said.

The last may not have been heard of the $20 billion “missing” oil money.

“The new administration will take a look at it,” President-elect Muhammadu Buhari said yesterday.

Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who is now the Emir of Kano, alleged that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) failed to remit $20 billion to the federation account, but a committee, which investigated the issue, claimed that about $10 billion was unremitted. Accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers was brought in. It said only $1 billion was unaccounted for. Details of its report are yet to be made public.

But Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke has said the money, which was transferred by NNPC to the Nigeria Petroleum Development Corporation (NPDC), was being sent to the treasury.

This is not likely to be the end of the controversial matter, going by Buhari’s view.

Speaking while receiving a delegation from Adamawa State led by the governor-elect, Senator Jibrila Bindow, at the Presidential Campaign Office in Abuja, Buhari also said that it was unfortunate that the PDP government had practically destroyed the armed forces.

He reiterated his earlier pledge to fight corruption and restore the confidence of Nigerians in the economy while taking practical steps to create employment for the youths.

Buhari, who is scheduled to take office on May 29, said: “I heard that some people have started returning money; I will not believe it until I go and see for myself. You all know what the Emir of Kano talked about when he was the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria when he said $20billion,  not naira, $20 billion was unaccounted for; they said it was a lie. Instead of investigating it, they sacked him.

“And God in His infinite mercy made him the Emir of Kano. In any case, that is what he wanted and since this was documented, the new administration will take a look at it.”

Gen. Buhari, who decried the level of destruction inflicted on the nation by the Boko Haram insurgency, said: “I thank God for your visit. From what he (leader of delegation) has said on this problem of Boko Haram, we thank God it is now evident that this is not a religious problem, but purely terrorism. I said it earlier, all the religions we practice, both Islam and Christianity, do not support terrorism.

“So, to go and kill people either in the mosque or in a church, market, motor park or to go and slaughter children in school, anyone who commits such a crime either does not know what Allahu Akbar (God is great) means or does not believe in it. This is terrorism. It is our hope that God gives us the power to end this.”

Buhari spoke also on jobs, describing unemployment as Nigeria’s biggest problem. He said: “I went to 35 out of the 36 states of the federation. I went to some states about six times. I went for town hall meetings in Kano, Lagos and here in Abuja. I met with religious leaders in churches of all denominations.

“From the airports to the streets, we saw youths running after our vehicles, sweating; some walking the whole distance to wherever we were driving to. Whether they went to school or did not go to school, they don’t have jobs.

“This is the biggest problem we have in Nigeria today. Apart from security challenges, the next thing is to find jobs for our youths. Our youths form 60 percent of our population in Nigeria and without jobs, these people who are still bubbling with energy will constitute a danger for this nation. If our youths don’t get jobs, we will not enjoy our stay in this nation.

“But one of the things we can do for you to fight poverty in Adamawa is the abundance of arable land that you have. Where I come from (Katsina State), the Sahara (desert) has eaten into the land and our populace who were not opportune to get  formal education became private guards because there is no more land to farm.

“But for you in Adamawa, you are blessed with land and water for agriculture. The 16 years of the PDP has further impoverished the people. It was the PDP, not the APP, not the CPC, not the APC because of that, within the next four years, we will do our best.

”The three things we in the APC will give priority to are the issues of security, the economy and the war against corruption. These are three things that affect all the states in Nigeria.

“We hope that like I have been hearing over the radio that we have regained most of the territories captured by Boko Haram; we thank God. But, among the worst atrocities committed against Nigeria by the PDP is what it has done to our military.

“It is our military that went to Barma; the same army that when I was commissioned second lieutenant, I did not spend three weeks before I found myself in Kinshasa (in Congo), then (the civil war) in Nigeria, Sierra Leone.

“Then to say Nigerian soldiers failed to retake 14 local government areas out of 774, for me who served in the military, I find it incomprehensible, except if I go there to find out what is the reason for this. The kind of leadership brought upon us by the PDP, whether it is documented or not, it can never be forgotten in our history.

“Because of the (Boko Haram crisis) some of our fellow Nigerians from the Northeast don’t know where their parents are; some don’t know where their children are; their houses have been burnt, their cities, like Bama, Michika, Mubi, Madagali and the rest of them.

“Some have built houses outside and when trouble starts they don’t even bother to carry their bags; they take a ride on Achaba (commercial motorcycle) and they flee Nigeria and leave us with the crisis. God help us.

“I hope those of you who have been elected as members of the legislature: the Senate and the House of Representatives at the Federal and state levels, you will work with us.

“I urge you to be patient and ensure that anything that will benefit our nation receives your support. We will try our possible best and ensure that we repair hospitals, schools, roads and ensure that we get drugs in our hospitals, books and other equipment.”

Bindow urged Buhari to help build institutions, such as health and education. Besides, said Bindow, Buhari should fight corruption.