The Acting Governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Fintiri, has emerged the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate for the October 11 governorship by-election in the state.
Fintiri defeated other aspirants in the primary election held in Yola, the state capital, on Saturday.
In an intense election which commenced on Saturday afternoon and lasted up to the early hours of Sunday, the acting governor was declared winner of the primaries with 624 votes. A former Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo, came second with 197 votes.
A former Lagos and Borno military administrator, Brig-Gen. Buba Marwa (retd) was second runner-up with 54 votes, while Umar Ardo, and a member of the State Assembly, Jerry Kumdiisi, scored 9 and 4 votes respectively. 23 votes were declared invalid.
Chairman of the primary and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, announced the results at about 4: 03 a.m today.
Mr. Fintiri’s emergence will not come as a surprise to close observers of political development in Adamawa after eight of the aspirants, who had withdrawn from the primary election, endorsed his candidature.
The eight aspirants include a former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu, Awwal Tukur, Idi Hong, Aliyu Kama, Markus Gundiri, Andrawus Sawa, Halilu Girei, and James Barka.
They had after a meeting with Senate President, David Mark, early on Friday at the State House, Abuja, withdrawn from the race after it was agreed that the Adamawa northern senatorial zone should produce the governor in the coming by-election, while the position would be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.
