26-year-old journalist wins Kwara Assembly seat

By: Biola Azeez – Ilorin

A 26-year-old journalist with an online media outfit in Kwara state, Miss Rukayat Motunrayo Shittu, has won the state House of Assembly elections in the Owode Onire state constituency of Asa Local Government Area of the state.

Miss Shittu, a candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had been described as one of the youngest candidates in Nigeria to contest and win a political seat.

She was the former Senate President of the Congress of NOUN Students (CONS) at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).

Announcing the results, INEC returning officer for the exercise, Professor Akeem Olasunkanmi Ijaiya, said that Shittu polled 7,521 votes to defeat his closest rival, Abdullah Magaji of the PDP who scored 6,957 during the Saturday elections.

“Having scored the highest number of votes and satisfied the requirements of the law, she is hereby declared the winner of the election” Prof Ijaiya declared.

Shittu is the youngest lawmaker in the state and arguably the youngest in the country to clinch the House of Assembly seat in the 2023 House of Assembly elections.

The former online journalist entered the race in 2022 after she quit her job for politics.

Her announcement sparked jubilation in her constituency as supporters and party members took to the streets to celebrate her victory.

Reacting to the victory, the APC candidate “Thanked the people of my constituency for voting en mass for me”.

Miss Shittu attended Baptist Primary School LGEA in Ilorin, and Government Girls Day Secondary School, Oko Erin to obtain her Senior Secondary School Certificate in 2011.

She proceeded to Kwara State College of Arabic and Islamic Legal Studies affiliated with Bayero University Kano where she got a diploma certificate in Mass Communication and Islamic Studies in 2015.

After her diploma, she enrolled in a fashion school. In 2017, she was admitted to the National Open University of Nigeria and graduated in 2022.

She worked as the head of the news department for an online media outlet in Kwara, Just Event Online.