Former governor of Kogi State, Prince Abubakar Audu, yesterday emerged the governorship standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress, APC, for the November 21 governorship election.

Declaring Audu winner, the governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, who was the chairman and Returning Officer for the primary election, said Audu scored the highest number of 1,109 of the 3400 votes cast to become the party flagbearer for the poll.

The primary, which was contested by 27 aspirants, after Babatunde Irukera withdrew from the race on Saturday morning, saw Yahaya Bello coming second with 703 votes, while the immediate senator who represented central senatorial district in the Senate in the last dispensation, Nurudeen Abatemi, who joined the APC a few months ago, scored 400 votes and Sanusi Abubakar came fourth with 309 votes.

In his acceptance speech, Audu, who urged other contestants to accept his emergence and work for the victory of the party at the general election, also pledged to abide by the party’s ideology in driving the state if elected.

Conceding defeat, second-placed Yahaya Bello called on his supporters to accept the result of the election and plan ahead for the 2019 election.
He described himself as the “party’s son that will become a man for 2019 guber race.”

El-Rufai, also urged other contestants to accept Audu’s emergence as candidate and bury any differences towards making the party victorious at the governorship poll later in the year.

The primary election, which started on Saturday morning and lasted till 11 am on Sunday was free, fair, credible and transparent.