The Acting Governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Fintiri, has emerged the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate for the October 11 governorship election in the state.
Mr. Fintiri defeated other aspirants in the primary election held in Yola, the state capital, on Saturday. In an intense election which lasted up to the early hours of Sunday, Mr. Fintiri won the primaries with 624 votes.
The current Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, came second with 197 votes. A former Lagos and Borno military administrator, Buba Marwa, got 54 votes, while Umar Ardo, and a member of the State Assembly, Jerry Kumdiisi, scored 9 and 4 votes respectively.
There were also 23 invalid votes. The results were declared by the chairman of the primary and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole at about 4: 03 a.m. Mr. Fintiri’s emergence was expected after eight of the aspirants who had withdrawn from the primary election declared support for him.
The eight aspirants include a former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu, as well as Awwal Tukur, Idi Hong, Aliyu Kama, Markus Gundiri, Andrawus Sawa, Halilu Gire, and James Barka.
They had after a meeting with Senate President, David Mark, early on Friday stepped down from the race after it was agreed that the Adamawa northern senatorial zone should produce the governor in the coming bye-election, while the position would be zoned to the central zone in 2015.
The aspirants said they supported Mr. Fintiri after he agreed not to contest the primaries of the party for the February 2015 governorship election.