Former Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar has been declared the winner of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary in Bauchi State.
He scored 370 votes out of 1021 votes cast to defeat six other aspirants who entered the race with him.
1028 delegates were accredited for the primary and seven votes were invalid.
The runner-up, a senator representing Bauchi Central, Haliru Jika got 278 votes while the first runner-up, an ex-state Commissioner for Finance, polled 269 votes.
Other aspirants are, a former Chairman of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Musa Babayo, who polled 70 votes; a former member of the House of Representatives representing Azase Federal Constituency, Farouq Mustapha, got 26 votes and ex-Secretary to the Bauchi State Government, Mahmud Maijama’a, raked in eight votes while the Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population, World Bank Group, Ali Pate got 0 votes.
While addressing journalists shortly after the exercise, Abubakar described dedicated his victory to the people of Bauchi State as well as his party.
According to him, he would work towards the unity of the party in order to emerge victorious in the 2023 general elections.
“It is not a victory for me but a victory for all of us. I want to assure you that we will work together in other to change the narrative about Bauchi State out there. So the victory is for everybody,” he said.
“The victory means that we have to work together, mobilise people, transform the state and prepare for the elections in 2023.”
Abubakar, who was appointed as Chief of Air Staff in 2015 was replaced alongside other service chiefs in January 2021 when President Muhammadu Buhari picked other top military commanders.
Although President Buhari later appointed him as Nigeria’s ambassador to Chad, he resigned from that appointment to join the Bauchi governorship race.
