From Paul Orude, Bauchi
Former Secretary to Bauchi State government, Barrister Ibrahim Kassim, has been declared winner of the governorship primary of the Peoples Democratic Party, conducted on Wednesday.
Ibrahim was declared winner at the primary which held at the Zaranda Hotel, Bauchi.
There was mild drama as the name and picture of Governor Bala Mohammed who is a presidential aspirant of the party appeared on the ballot paper.
Returning Officer , Hassan Grema, said that Kassim, scored a total of 655 votes while one vote was invalid.
“The total number of accredited delegates is 656 and the valid votes cast are 655, and we had one vite as invalid, making a total number of vote cast as 656,”Grema said
“By the powers conferred on me as the Chairman of the electoral panel and the Returning Officer of the PDP governorship primary in Bauchi state, I hereby return Barrister Ibrahim Kassim with the highest total votes casting favour of 655 as the duly returned elected candidate of the PDP, Bauchi state governorship for 2023 election”
Kassim was the only candidate contested the primary, he said
Grema said on the guideline, delegates had to cast votes and votes were counted even though Kassim was the only candidate contesting for the governorship of Bauchi state on the platform of the PDP
In his acceptance speech, Kassim thanked the delegates for the confidence reposed on him to give him their mandate.
He stressed the need for members to be united if they must win the 2023 gubernatorial election in the state however, informing them that the task ahead of them is a great one.
“I stand before you today to humbly accept the nomination to run as the gubernatorial candidate of our one and only party in Bauchi state, the Peoples Democratic Party,” he said.
“The journey has just started. We have a great work ahead of us. Therefore, what is h, insha Allah,” he stated.
Meanwhile, responding to journalists in an interview on why the name of the governor is on the ballot, the Chairman of the PDP in the state, Hamza Akuyam, said it was an “error.”
“That was an error done by the National Secretariat of the party because they just assumed he was going to contest (for second term) again. He didn’t go for any screening, he is not looking for any governor, he is looking for the president, so how can you get him on the ballot.
“When asked if the governor if the governor bought or not, he said: “no, he didn’t buy the form. It was a printing error that his name is on the ballot.”
Akuyam expressed gratitude to God “for a hitch-free process” adding that “you can see what happened, we conducted our primary very transparently, the process was also excellent. We didn’t receive any complain after all, we had only one candidate.”
He called on all those who emerged as candidates in the other primary to join hands and work for the party in order to get victory for the party at the general elections.
He expressed optimism that the party will win the elections declaring that “we are prepared to win, remember, we won the election when we were out of government and this time, we will win again since we are a winning party.
