The ongoing supplementary election for the Jalingo/Yorro/Zing federal constituency seat in Taraba, on Wednesday recorded massive voter turnout across polling units, a correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

NAN reports that throughout the 15 polling units in the Jalingo metropolis, voters displayed enthusiasm to exercise their franchise, with queues forming as early as 7:00 a.m., ahead of the 8:30 a.m. commencement of the exercise.

Alhaji Tukur El-Suldi, chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the state, expressed satisfaction with the turnout.

El-Suldi observed that the turnout could have been higher if the election was scheduled for a weekend.

He, however, expressed confidence that the APC would win the election.

He noted the peaceful and orderly atmosphere at the polling units, compared to the rerun election held on Feb. 3.

According to El-Suldi, 14,795 votes, totaling the number of PVCs collected in the affected polling units, will be contested by the political parties and their candidates during the supplementary poll.

NAN reports that the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Sadiq Tafida, was leading with 17,214 votes at the by-election, closely followed by Mr Innocent Jabayang of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), who garnered 15,537 votes.

Alhaji Aminu Malle, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), got 12,000 votes.

NAN also reports that the seat became vacant following the death of Alhaji Samaila Maihanci, who won on the platform of the PDP but died before the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly.

The Feb. 3 rerun had ended up in another rerun due to the slim margin between the winner and the runners-up, which was less than the 14,795 cancelled votes.

NAN, however, reports that there was tight security at the polling units, as all the processes followed the laid-down rules governing the conduct of an election. (NAN