The candidate of the APC for the House of Assembly election in Owode/Onire Constituency, Asa LGA of Kwara State, Rukayat Motunrayo Shittu, has been declared winner of the poll.
Announcing the result, INEC’s returning officer for the exercise, Prof Akeem Olasunkanmi Ijaiya, said Rukaya polled 7,521 votes to defeat her closest rival, Abdullah Magaji, of the PDP who scored 6,957 votes.
Prof Ijaiya declared, “Having scored the highest number of votes and satisfied the requirements of the law, she is hereby declared the winner of the election.”
Rukayyat is going to be the youngest lawmaker in the state and arguably the youngest in the country.
Rukayyat, an online journalist, entered the race in 2022.
Reacting to the victory while speaking to Daily Trust, she said, “I thank the people of my constituency for voting en masse for me.”
Rukayat Motunrayo Shittu hails from Manyan village, Onire District, in Asa LGA of Kwara State.
Born in 1996, she attended Baptist Primary School, Ilorin, and Government Girls Day Secondary School (GGDSS), Oko Erin, Ilorin. She proceeded to the Kwara State College of Arabic and Islamic Legal Studies, where she obtained a diploma in mass communication and Islamic studies in 2015.
In 2017, she was admitted to the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) and graduated in 2022.