TheCable

The APC held its governorship primary election ‎on Saturday, but the exercise did not end until the early hours of Sunday.

Audu scored about 1, 109 votes out of 3044 total votes cast to beat 27 other aspirants. ‎He is expected to square off against Idris Wada, current Kogi state governor and likely candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for election.

His closest rival, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, scored 703 votes; while a former senator, Nurudeen Abatemi, scored 400 votes to place third .Another aspirant, Alhaji Sanusi Abubakar, scored 309 votes; while Hajia Hadiza Ibrahim, the only female among the 28 aspirants, scored four votes.Out of the 3,548 delegates, 3,044 were accredited by the electoral panel, while 29 votes were declared invalid.

Nasir El-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state and chairman of the electoral panel, commended the aspirants for their maturity and commitment to the ideals of the party.

El-Rufai urged the Audu and other contenders to quickly close ranks and work together to ensure the victory of the party in the coming election.

In his response, Audu thanked members of the electoral panel for making the election transparent, free and fair. He called on other aspirants to accept the result in good faith and work with him in harmony in the interest of the party.“Let us work together in harmony, we have serious task ahead. To unseat an incumbent is not easy but we can do it,” he said.

He described the result of the election “as no victor, no vanquished’’ and praised all the aspirants for their courage and comport before and during the primary election.Bello, who spoke on behalf of the other aspirants, described the primary election as transparent, free and fair and lauded the members of the electoral panel for their efforts. He advised Audu to live up to his position as a leader and father, describing APC as a big family.Bello, also advised the winner to carry all aspirants and stakeholders along, pledging that they would work with him to win the election.

 Audu, who was first governor of the state from January 1992 until November 1993. He was also governor between 1999 and 2003‎, and has contested but lost all governorship elections in the state since then.

He is still being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged money laundering and theft to the tune of N11 billion during his 1999-2003 tenure.