Abdullahi Candido, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the March 9 Abuja Municipal Area Council chairmanship election, has been declared winner by the Returning Officer, Prof. Mohammed Ndagi.
Declaring the result on Sunday, the returning officer announced that Candido scored a total of 53,538 votes to defeat the other 28 contestants.
The election, which was contested in 12 wards, had a total of 99,443 accredited voters and a total of 2,615 rejected votes.
The closest contender and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Vivian Anazedo, scored 35,753 votes.
In an interview with journalists after the declaration, Candido, who is the incumbent Chairman of AMAC, said he was humbled and excited.
He said he was happy and set to render another tremendous service to the people of the council.
The chairman said the electoral process was transparent, adding that the election was one around town.
He called on candidates who lost in the election to come on board as there was room in his administration for everyone to serve.
He commended the Independent National Electoral Commission for a job well done, adding that there was an improvement from February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections.
Candido urged his supporters to celebrate moderately and pray for more wisdom to paddle the affairs of the council.
Meanwhile, the collation agent of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr. Harvest Iyowor, said the election was marred with irregularities.
Iyowor said there were cases of over voting and the result was not acceptable to his party.
He alleged that there was an undercover and a collaboration to defraud Nigerians living in AMAC.
He said the party would challenge the result in court and retrieve the lie mandate from the APC.
On his part, Kwanashie Yahuza, the party agent for the All Progressives Grand Alliance, said there were too many irregularities in the election.
Yahuza, whose party candidate, Isokari Tonye, scored a total of 830 votes, said though his party would not challenge the result in court, the result was not acceptable by any standard.