Engr. Musa Wada has emerged the flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the November 16 governorship election in Kogi state.
Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa state, who is chairman of the electoral committee declared that Engr. Musa Wada polled 748 to defeat his closest opponent, Abubakar Mohammed Ibrahim who polled 710 votes.
According to results declared in Lokoja on Wednesday, former Governor Idris Wada got 345 votes to emerge third while Senator Dino Melaye polled 70 votes to come fourth.
He said Abubakar Aminu Suleiman got 55 votes; Dr Victor Adoji had 54 votes while Joseph Ameh Erico got 43 votes.
Other results declared indicate that AVM Salihu Attawodi scored 11 votes; Emmanuel Omebije got nine votes; Mohammed Shaibu got four votes; Bayo Michael and Kabiru Haruna got two votes each while Grace Adejoh got zero vote.
Fintiri said a total of 3,388 voters were accredited for the election while 54 votes were invalid.
He said the primary election was conducted in a transparent, free and fair manner.
He however confirmed that the exercise was disrupted following sporadic shootings at the early hours of Wednesday while sorting was ongoing, adding that they were however able to recover a total of 2,109 of the votes cast while 247 were missing following the incident.
He said after deliberations with the aspirants, agents and other key party stakeholders following the incident, it was agreed that declaration should be made since the outcome of the exercise meets “substantial compliance” rule.
Fintiri however said that aspirants that were not satisfied with the decision could take their cases to the party’s Appeal Committee in Abuja for redress.
He advised all the aspirants that could not emerge victorious this time around to put the interest of the PDP uppermost by ensuring that they rally round the flag bearer to enable the party win in the November 16 election.
Reacting, the party’s flag bearer, Engr Musa Wada described his victory as a long awaited dream come true.
He expressed his readiness to reconcile with all those that are aggrieved with the outcome of the exercise to enable the party win in the forthcoming election.
Engr Wada urged the ruling party not to introduce violence in the forthcoming election, warning that “nobody has the monopoly of violence”.
Also reacting, Abubakar Mohammed Ibrahim who came second, said he would approach the party’s Appeal committee for redress in view of the missing 247 votes which he noted could have been able to swing the winning pendulum to his side or the other way round.
For his part, the agent of Senator Dino Melaye, Femi Obalemo expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome of the exercise, saying they will approach the party’s Appeal Committee for redress.
“We are going to appeal. This is not an election. It is totally rejected”, he said.
