Ganduje was the sole candidate in the primary. The governor encouraged party Nigerians to come out en mass and vote for President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
Desmond Mgboh, Kano; Rose Ejembi, Makurdi; Agaju Madugba, Katsina; Layi Olanrewaju, Ilorin
Kano State Governor, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, his colleagues in Benue and Katsina states, Samuel Ortom and Aminu Bello Masari, respectively, won their second term tickets in governorship primaries which ended yesterday.
READ ALSO: 2019: Buhari’ll get 2.5m votes in Katsina, says Gov. Masari
Ganduje emerged as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate with 2,740,847 votes.
Chief Returning Officer for the primary election in the state, Mr Pius Odudu, announced the result at the state party’s secretariat. Thereafter, in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Alhaji Abba Anwar, he said the figure was arrived at after collating all the results forwarded by the 44 local governments of the state.
Dr Ganduje was the sole candidate in the primary.
The governor encouraged party members and other Nigerians to come out en mass and vote for President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
“Our major concern, as being championed by our dear president Muhammadu Buhari, is to take Nigeria to the next level of development. That is why we are replicating, at state levels, what president Buhari is championing.”
In Benue, Ortom emerged winner of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary.
He polled 2,210 votes to defeat his closest contender, John Tondo, who could only garner 475 votes in the primary which held at the Aper Aku Stadium, Makurdi, yesterday.
Others who contested the primary with Ortom and Tondo were former COREN registrar, Felix Atume and former NAFDAC boss, Dr. Paul Orhii, who scored 44 votes and 10 votes, respectively.
As soon as it was obvious that the Governor was winning the election, Tondo who all the while had been keenly watching the exercise stood to his feet, walked up to Ortom and congratulated him.
The mammoth crowd also went into a frenzy of jubilation to celebrate the winner but had to be calmed down by the Electoral Committee to allow the vote count.
In his acceptance speech, Ortom thanked all those who stood by him to ensure he came out victorious in the primary and promised to carry everyone along.
READ ALSO: Ortom wins Benue PDP guber primary
Masari also won the APC governorship ticket with 5,562 votes, to defeat his closest rival, Abubakar Ismaila Isa Funtua, who got eight votes while the third contestant, Garba Danlami, received one vote out of the total 5,627 votes cast on Sunday.
Chairman of the APC governorship primaries committee, Dr. Isa Adamu, who announced the results at the conclusion of the polls late Sunday night said 5,959 delegates, from across the 34 local government areas in the state participated at the primary.
In his speech after the declaration of results, Masari said that he was thankful to God “for making it possible to produce a candidate for Katsina for the 2019 governorship polls, after a hitch-free exercise.”
In a similar development, the PDP in the state also conducted its governorship primaries, same day, and Senator Yakubu Lado Danmarke emerged winner.
Lado beat five other contestants having polled 3,385 votes, according to the Chairman of the PDP gubernatorial primaries election committee, Senator Adamu Kadia, who announced the results at 2.40 a.m. yesterday.
Another contestant for the position, Alhaji Ahmed Aminu Yar’Adua, received 233 votes while Musa Nasiru got one vote.
And, for the PDP, the choice of Lado as a “consensus” candidate, after a “mock election,” before the primary, did not go down well with a cross section of members of the party.
For Yar’Adua, “there was supposedly a mock election staged by 18 officials of the party, to select what they called a consensus candidate. What they did is illegal.”
It was a different scenario in Kwara State when eight PDP aspirants withdrew from the governorship primary.
Those who withdrew were: Dr Ali Ahmad; Saka Isau (SAN), Ladi Hassan, Ibrahim Ajia, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, Zakari Mohammed and Ahman Pategi.
Although the eight reportedly stepped down, four aspirants, Abdullahi, Abubakar Suleiman, Aliyu Bahago Ahman Patigi and Ibrahim Ajia were not at the venue to deny their withdrawal from the race.
The contest was between a member of the House of Representatives, Razak Atunwa, from Kwara Central and Senator Sha’aba Lafiagi from Kwara North.
Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, explained that the eight aspirants withdrew from the race because of the party’s interest and thanked them for their “act of magnanimity.”
The governor also thanked the state’s political leader and Senate President, Bukola Saraki, for his wise counseling and purposeful leadership, which have kept members of the PDP united in the state.
In the final votes cast at the primary, Lafiagi, who is also a former governor of the state, polled 578 votes.
His main contender, Atunwa got 1, 555 votes while 35 votes were voided.
Atunwa, a former commissioner for Information and Works in the state is from Asa Local Government Area, while Lafiagi is from Edu Local Government area.
Conduct of the PDP governorship primaries, which started on Sunday, was declared inconclusive when the peaceful process was disrupted abruptly by some hoodlums suspected to be hired political thugs .
Before commencement of voting by accredited 2,227 delegates from the 193 wards in the state, nine out of the eleven aspirants who signified interest in the contest announced their withdrawal from the race.