Candidate Shehu Sale of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), has been declared winner of Saturday’s by-election for the House of Representatives seat of the  Magama/Rijau Federal Constituency of Niger.

The INEC Returning Officer, Prof. Tanko Baba of the Usman Danfodio University Sokoto, said Mr. Sale scored 22,965 votes to defeat Alamu Emmanuel of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who came second with 22,507 votes.

Mr. Baba said the candidate of the ADC, Yusuf Nasir, polled 336 votes.

Candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Hashim Danjuma, who won the previous election had earlier been disqualified by the courts on grounds that he submitted forged documents to INEC.

The returning officer explained that the total number of registered voters was 159,347, while the number of accredited voters was 46,734, with 45,808 valid votes, total votes cast 46,499 and rejected votes 691.

Prof. Samuel Egwu, the Niger State Resident Electoral Commissioner, on Sunday, commended the electorate in the constituency for their peaceful conduct during and after the election.

Mr. Egwu also lauded efforts of the police for providing a peaceful political atmosphere before and during the electoral process in the area.