TheCable

Razak Atunwa, a serving member of the house of representatives, has won the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary election in Kwara state.

Atunwa defeated Sha’aba Lafiagi, the senator currently representing Kwara north, who participated in the rescheduled exercise held on Monday.

According to the results, Atunwa scored 1555 votes ahead of Lafiagi who recorded 578 votes.

The election was disrupted on Sunday by some delegates who alleged that there were attempts to manipulate the process.

At the commencement of the exercise, eight of the ten aspirants withdrew from the race.

They are Bolaji Abdulahi, Ali Ahmad, Saka Isau, Ladi Hassan, Ibrahim Kaia, Zakari Mohammed, Abubakar Amani and Ahman Pategi.

Atunwa, who represents Asa/Ilorin west federal constituency, is an associate of Senate President Bukola Saraki.

He holds a master’s degree in Law from the University of East London. According to his profile, he was called to the Bar of England and Wales in October 1994.

He practised in the United Kingdom until he moved to Nigeria in 2005 to commence his political career.

In August 2005, he was appointed the commissioner for lands and housing of Kwara. A year later, he was redeployed to the ministry of information and in July 2007, Atunwa was appointed as commissioner for works and transport.

He was moved to the Ministry of Finance in November 2009.

In April 2011, Atunwa was elected into the Kwara state house of assembly to represent Owode/Onire constituency of Asa local government, Kwara.

On June 6, 2011, he was unanimously elected speaker of the state assembly and elected into the house of representatives in 2015.