Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission has declared winners in five legislative by-elections held on Saturday, September 19, across Gombe, Kano, Delta and Bauchi states. The All Progressives Congress won four seats, while the Allied Peoples Movement captured the Sakwa State Constituency in Bauchi. The outcomes replace vacant representatives; they are not a statewide or national general-election result.
Four APC victories and one APM breakthrough
In Gombe State, APC candidate Kallamu MaiJama'a won the Gombe/Kwami/Funakaye Federal Constituency with 41,121 votes, according to the returning officer's declaration reported by the News Agency of Nigeria. Labour Party candidate Aishatu Yelwa received 3,553 votes, APM candidate Abdullahi Umar received 872 and the NDP's Gideon Habib received 707. Officials reported 47,301 ballots cast, including 46,551 valid votes and 750 rejected ballots.
That federal seat became vacant after the death of Yaya Bauchi-Tongo. The constituency covers 903 polling units in 31 registration areas across Gombe, Kwami and Funakaye local government areas. The result therefore decides representation for those communities in the House of Representatives, not the political preference of Gombe State as a whole.
In Kano, APC candidate Husseini Datti—also reported as Hussain Yusuf-Datti—won the Dawakin Kudu State Constituency. A returning-officer account carried by Premium Times and NAN placed him on 22,890 votes, well ahead of the Peoples Redemption Party on 270, the Peoples Democratic Party on 108, the African Democratic Party on 89, the Action Peoples Party on 53 and the Labour Party on 39. The pronounced margin is large, but comparable turnout data for all five contests were not available in the declarations reviewed for this report.
Bauchi split its two contests
Delta's Udu State Constituency went to the APC's Okolosi Ator with 8,724 votes, according to the declared result reported on Sunday. The PDP candidate received 214 votes. The figures describe one constituency contest and should not be extrapolated into a forecast for every Delta voter or for national races scheduled for 2027.
Bauchi produced the night's split verdict. In Disina State Constituency, APC candidate Yakubu Ali won with 5,846 votes, ahead of APM on 5,225 and PRP on 3,701. In Sakwa State Constituency, APM candidate Adamu Yakubu won with 8,515 votes; APC received 3,771, PDP 2,076 and PRP 727. Sakwa is the clearest reminder that the governing party did not sweep all five vacancies.
The five polls comprised one federal constituency and four state constituencies. Their electorate sizes, local candidates, vacancy histories and campaign conditions differ, so adding the victories together cannot produce a scientifically valid measure of national public opinion. By-elections can reveal organisation and local enthusiasm, but they are a limited snapshot rather than a referendum on an entire administration.
What these results do—and do not—show
President Bola Tinubu congratulated all five winners in a statement issued on September 20. He described the four APC victories as evidence of confidence in his administration and the party's direction. That is the President's political interpretation of the results, not an independently established conclusion; the APM victory in Sakwa and the absence of comparable turnout data across all contests are important context.
Tinubu also urged unsuccessful candidates to accept the results and asked the winners to represent their constituents diligently. He commended voters and INEC and called for any operational shortcomings to be corrected before the January and February 2027 general elections. The commission's chairman, Joash Amupitan, had similarly described the contests as an opportunity to test preparations and identify lessons before the larger national exercise.
For the new lawmakers, the immediate democratic obligation is constituency service: joining their legislatures, communicating with residents and accounting for how they use the shortened remainder of the term. For INEC, the useful follow-through would be prompt access to complete result sheets, turnout figures and any incident reports for all five contests, so the public can assess the elections on more than victory statements.
The next test is transparent follow-through
Any formal challenge will be decided through Nigeria's election-petition process, not through party claims or social-media tallies. Until such a challenge changes a declaration, the announced winners are MaiJama'a in Gombe/Kwami/Funakaye, Datti in Dawakin Kudu, Ator in Udu, Ali in Disina and Yakubu in Sakwa.
The politically significant fact is precise but narrow: APC secured four of the five seats contested on September 19, while APM denied it a clean sweep in Bauchi. The broader judgment about national confidence will require transparent 2027 contests with far larger electorates, comparable turnout data and results across the federation.
