Bala Lukshi, candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC in the Dass Constituency has been declared the winner of the bye-election in Bauchi State held on Saturday.

The bye-election is considered a test of political strengths between the Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, and the former Speaker of House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, who recently defected to the APC.

The Returning Officer of the bye-election, Prof. Ahmed Mohammed of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, who declared the result, said Lukshi, polled a total of 12, 299 votes to defeat his closest rival of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Lawal Wandi, who polled 11,062 votes to come second.

He, therefore, declared that “the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bala Lukshi, having scored the highest number of votes is hereby declared the winner and returned elected.”

The Dass Local Government Area is one of the three LGAs represented by the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.

Its seat became vacant when the representative, Musa Baraza, was killed by gunmen on Friday, August 14th, 2020 at his residence in Dass.

The slain lawmaker’s two wives, Rashida, Rahina, and his 18-month-old daughter, Khausar were kidnapped during the attack but were rescued by the police after spending about five days in captivity.