He was elected under the People's Democratic Party (Nigeria) and was re-elected 2015 but died on 16 May 2015, few days before resuming office.
[6] In the PDP primaries, Zanna defeated the former secretary to the state government, Dr Bukar Abba.
[2] Zanna was thought to be politically naive compared to his opponent in the Senate race, the state Governor Ali Modu Sheriff.
This period saw several religious riots in which many churches were destroyed, massive killings and destruction of property by the Boko Haram fundamentalist Islamist sect, and little or no compensation to the 40% of the state population who are Christian.
They claimed that results were marred by vote rigging, killing, intimidation, stuffing of ballot boxes and victimization of voters.