Dr. Dikko Umaru Radda has been declared winner of the Katsina State All Progressives Congress governorship primary.
Radda secured 506 votes to defeat his closest rival, Mustapha Muhammad Inuwa who got 442. Inuwa was followed closely by Abbas Umar Masanawa who scored 436 votes.
Senator Abubakar Yar’Adua got 32 votes; Faruk Lawal Jobe, 71; Abdulkarim Dauda Daura, 7; Umar Abdullahi Tsauri Tata, scored 8; Mannir Yakubu, 65 votes; and Architect Ahmed Dangiwa, 220.
The Chairman of the Electoral Committee, Kaka Shehu, who announced the result at the Muhammadu Dikko Stadium, Katsina said out of the 1,805 delegates drawn from 361 Wards of the state, 1,801 were accredited with only four invalid votes noted at the end of voting.
Channels Television gathered that a total of nine Governorship aspirants in the State were in the race to succeed Governor Aminu Bello Masari.
The aspirants were a mix of former government officials and business men.
For instance, Radda who won the party’s ticket was the Director-General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN). Inuwa who came second was a former Secretary to the State Government, while Masanawa who came third was the immediate past Managing Director of the Nigerian Security and Printing Company.
The state’s Deputy Governor, Manir Yakubu, was also in the race but finished outside the top three.
Others who jostled for the ticket are former Commissioner for Budget and Economic planning, Faruk Lawal Jobe; the immediate passed Managing Director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Architect Ahmed Dangiwa; a Kaduna State based businessman, Senator Abubakar Yar’adua; Umar Abdullahi Tsauri Tata and as well as the former Chief Personal Security Officer to the President, Abdulkarim Dauda Daura.
