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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has removed the name of the embattled leader of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado Doguwa, from the list of election winners.
The commission had declared Doguwa as the winner of the February 25 election in Doguwa/Tudunwada Federal Constituency.
The Returning Officer, Professor Ibrahim Adamu Yakasai, had announced that Doguwa of the All Progressives Congress (APC) polled 39,732 votes to defeat his closest rival, Yushau Salisu Abdullahi of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), who had 34,798 votes.
But in the newly released list of members-elect, Doguwa’s name was conspicuously absent.
In the remark section, INEC stated that the declaration was made under duress.
In a viral video of Yakasai declaring the results, the don from Bayero University, Kano, could be seen reading out the results with shaky voice.
Following the violence recorded in the constituency during and after the election, Doguwa was arrested by the police at the Aminu Kano Airport, Kano, for his alleged role in the killings of several persons and burning of NNPP secretariat, an allegation the lawmaker has vehemently denied.
The police had confirmed that at least three persons were killed while the campaign secretariat of the NNPP in Tudunwada was set ablaze with two persons burnt to death.
Doguwa was thereafter taken before a magistrate’s court on charges of murder, arson and unlawful possession of firearms, and was subsequently remanded in prison.
But a Federal High Court in Kano admitted the embattled lawmaker to N500 million bail on Monday, and also barred him from his constituency during the forthcoming governorship and state assembly elections.