Finance Commissioner defeats incumbent senator of Kaduna North

Alhaji Suleiman Abdu-Kwari of All Progressive Congress (APC) was on Monday declared winner of Kaduna North Senatorial District election held on Saturday, Feb. 23.

Abdu-Kwari, the Commissioner of Finance in the State defeated the incumbent senator representing the area, Sen. Suleiman Hunkuyi who defected to PDP just last year.

Announcing the result at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Zonal Office in Zaria, Kaduna State, the Returning Officer, Prof. Muhammad Magaji-Garba of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria said the APC candidate polled 411,498 votes to defeat other contestants.

He said People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Suleiman Hunkuyi scored 181,955 votes to emerge second in the contest.

The Returning Officer said all together 20 candidates contested for the senatorial election.

Magaji-Garba said: “Kwari Suleiman Abdu of the APC, having satisfied the requirement of the law and scored the highest number of votes is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected today, 25th February 2019.”

Speaking in an interview shortly after the announcement, Abdu-Kwari attributed his victory to manifestation of the proven leadership exhibited by President Muhammadu Buhari and Gov. Nasiru el-Rufa’i of Kaduna State.

He promised to do everything possible to improve on the lives of the people under his senatorial district, while also appreciating the electorate for coming out en-mass to exercise their franchise.

“We are very much proud of our President as well as our amiable governor, Malam Nasiru Ahmad el-Rufa’i, we are all proud to be associated with wonderful jobs they have been doing to our nation.

“I think is a vindication of how hard the governor has been working to supplement the efforts of Mr President and the people have spoken loudly that APC in this zone is entrenched.

“We hope this will be replicated in the next two weeks with a shouting yes in favour of our governor and we hope this will go down well in history that we have supported Mr. President in this election,” he said.

NAN