By Amah Alphonsus Amaonye
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has congratulated winners of the legislative by-elections conducted across Gombe, Kano, Bauchi and Delta States, after the All Progressives Congress (APC) secured four of the five seats contested.
The elections, held on Saturday, September 19, 2026, comprised one federal constituency and four State House of Assembly constituencies. The APC won four seats, while the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) captured the remaining seat in Bauchi.
The APC victories went to Kallamu MaiJama’a in Gombe/Kwami/Funakaye Federal Constituency, Husseini Datti in Dawakin Kudu State Constituency, Kano, Okolosi Ator in Udu State Constituency, Delta, and Yakubu Ali in Disina State Constituency, Bauchi.
APM candidate Adamu Yakubu won the Sakwa State Constituency seat in Bauchi.
In his congratulatory message, Tinubu said the APC’s performance demonstrated what he described as continuing confidence among Nigerians in the party’s capacity to govern and implement its reform programme.
The President also urged the newly elected lawmakers to justify the confidence placed in them by their constituents through effective and diligent representation.
He called on unsuccessful candidates to accept the results in good faith and continue participating in Nigeria’s democratic process.
Tinubu further commended voters and security agencies for maintaining peace during the polls, while praising the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for conducting the elections.
A SIGNAL AHEAD OF 2027?
The results have inevitably attracted political attention because they come only months before Nigeria’s next general elections.
INEC itself described the by-elections as an important operational exercise from which lessons could be drawn ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The commission’s current electoral calendar schedules the presidential and National Assembly elections for January 16, 2027, while governorship and State House of Assembly elections in participating states are scheduled for February 6, 2027.
For the APC, winning four of five seats provides an immediate political talking point as the party prepares for the much larger electoral contest.
But the by-election results should also be interpreted within their proper context. They involved only five constituencies across four states and cannot, by themselves, establish how voters across Nigeria will behave in the 2027 general elections.
The result nonetheless gives the ruling party fresh momentum and provides INEC with another opportunity to identify logistical and operational issues requiring attention before the national polls.
With the 2027 elections now approaching rapidly, every constituency-level contest is becoming a test—not only for political parties, but also for INEC’s preparedness and the credibility of the electoral process.
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