The All Progressives Congress (APC) has further consolidated its political dominance in Gombe State after winning every chairmanship and councillorship seat contested in Saturday’s local government elections.
Results announced by the Gombe State Independent Electoral Commission (GOSIEC) showed that the ruling party secured all 24 chairmanship positions and all 240 councillorship seats across the state’s local government councils and newly created Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs).
The outcome leaves opposition parties without a single elected position at the grassroots level and underscores the widening political gap between the APC and its challengers in the state.
Chairman of GOSIEC, Abdullahi Garba Talasse, who declared the results in Gombe on Saturday, attributed the one-sided outcome largely to the limited participation of opposition parties in the elections.
According to him, several opposition parties contested only a handful of positions, leaving large portions of the electoral field open to the ruling party.
The African Congress (AC), he said, fielded candidates in only three chairmanship races, while the Democratic Liberation Alliance (DLA) contested six local government chairmanship seats.
The New Nigeria People’s Movement (NRM), Youth Party (YP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) each sponsored candidates in just three chairmanship contests.
A similar pattern was recorded in the councillorship elections, where opposition parties contested only a fraction of the 240 available seats.
“That explains why some parties recorded zero votes in several areas because they did not participate across all the councils and wards,” Talasse said.
Beyond the APC’s clean sweep, the election also marked the first major test of the state’s newly expanded local government structure following the creation of additional Local Council Development Areas.
Talasse described the exercise as a significant milestone, noting that Gombe’s local governance framework has expanded from 11 councils and 114 councillors to 24 councils and LCDAs with 240 councillorship seats.
“We did not struggle for the enabling law in vain. Today, we have successfully conducted elections across the 24 councils and LCDAs,” he said.
The commission chairman commended political parties, security agencies, election observers and civil society groups for contributing to what he described as a peaceful electoral process.
Saturday’s outcome is expected to strengthen APC’s grassroots mobilisation network and political influence across the state as parties begin positioning for the 2027 general elections.
For opposition parties, however, the results may trigger fresh introspection over organisational strength, grassroots presence and electoral strategy in a state where the ruling party appears to have tightened its hold on the political landscape.