Ruling Party PDP Wins Adamawa
Governorship Polls
The Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) governorship candidate in the re-run Adamawa State
governorship election, Admiral Murtala Nyako (rtd), on Sunday
coasted home to victory as he defeated his rival, Alhaji Ibrahim
Bapetel, of the Action Congress (AC).
Dr Abdul Bulama, the Resident Electoral Commis-sioner in the
state, who was also the Returning Officer, declared that PDP won
in all the 21 local governments of the state.
Nyako beat other 11 contestants by polling 361,729 votes. His
closest rival, Bapetel, scored 201,767. Joel Madaki of the
Labour Party (LP) came third with 7,360 votes.
Nyako was removed by the Court of Appeal which upheld the
decision of governorship election tribunal, which nullified his
election on the basis of Bapetel being unlawfully excluded from
April 14, 2007 election by the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC).
Bulama said that the state had a total of 1.3 million registered
voters, out of which 701,196 were valid votes and 126,272 were
rejected or “invalid”.
As the results were being announced, the streets of Yola and
Jemeta erupted in jubilation in support of Nyako.
Street urchins on motorbikes celebrated Nyako's victory with
acrobatic displays.
The defeat of Bapetel is seen in political circles as an
indirect defeat of his political sponsor, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar,
the former vice-president and the presidential candidate of AC
in the last general elections.
According to the Electoral Officers from the local government
areas of the state who presented the results of the election,
there were pockets of skirmishes.
NP/MICHAEL
