Bala Mohammed defeats ex-air chief to win re-election as Bauchi governor

Bala Mohammed, governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has been re-elected as governor of Bauchi state.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared him winner of the March 18 guber election in the early hours of Monday.

Abdulkareem Mohammed, the returning officer, said the governor polled 525,280 votes to defeat Sadique Abubakar of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who had 432,272 votes.

“That Mohammed Bala Abdulkadir of PDP having satisfied the requirement of the law is hereby returned elected,” he said.

Bala won 15 of the 20 LGAs in the state while Abubakar, the immediate-past chief of air staff (CAS), clinched five.

Mohammed, a former minister of the federal capital territory (FCT) and senator, was first elected as governor of Bauchi state in 2019.

In January, Yakubu Ajaka, deputy national spokesperson of the APC, boasted that Abubakar would win the governorship election in the state “by a landslide”.

“I want to assure the people of Bauchi state and Nigerians that the state specifically would witness another success story by bringing back the government of the APC under the leadership of Alhaji Sadique Abubakar,” he had said.

“The PDP-led government in Bauchi state should be preparing its handover notes by now because the APC is winning both the presidency for Asiwaju and governorship election for Sadique Abubakar by a landslide.”