Ribadu wins Adamawa PDP governorship ticket

Nuhu Ribadu, a former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has won the governorship primary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Adamawa state.

According to Rufai Hanga, chairman of the election panel, Ribadu polled 688 votes to beat Bala Ngilari, the governor, who got 26 votes.

Awwal Tukur, son of former chairman of the PDP, Bamanga Tukur (who is on suspension from the party) got 24 votes.

Ahmed Modibb, a former executive secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBE‎C), polled 30 votes, while retired General Aliyu Kama got 3 votes.

Marcus Gundiri, who contested and lost the 2011 governorship election, secured 33 votes.

In August, TheCable exclusively reported that PDP had granted Ribadu waiver to contest the Adamawa state governorship bye-election initially scheduled for October 11, despite only recently defecting to the party.

The election was necessitated by the impeachment of then governor of the state, Murtala Nyako, on July 15.

Nyako’s deputy, Bala Ngilari resigned to beat the impeachment, prompting the declaration of Umar Fintiri as acting governor pending the conduct of a bye-election.

Ribadu pulled out of the contest after PDP decided that the winner would only serve out Nyako’s tenure and would not contest the 2015 governorship election. Rabiu Kwankwaso, governor of Kano and APC presidential aspirant, subsequently described Ribadu as the laughing stock of Adamawa PDP stakeholders.

But just one day before the election, the court stopped the bye-election and ordered Ngilari’s immediate swearing-in, saying his resignation did not follow the proper channel.