Suswam, Yuguda, Ngige lose senatorial bid

L-R: Ngige, Smart Adeyemi, Yuguda and Suswam

Three Peoples Democratic Party governors have lost their senatorial bid. The governors are Isa Yuguda (Bauchi); Gabriel Suswam (Benue) and Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu. In Anambra state also, a former governor, Chris Ngigie, who represents Anambra-Central, lost his seat. In Kogi State, the senator representing Kogi-West, Smart Adeyemi, lost to former House of Representatives member, Dino Melaye of the All Progressives Congress In Benue, Suswam was defeated by incumbent Senator, Chief Barnabas Gemade, in the race for the Benue North-East seat. Gemade, an APCmember, polled 140,715 votes to beat Suswam. Suswam, a sitting PDP governor, scored 118,608 votes to lose in his ambition to occupy the senate seat. The Collation Officer for the zone, Prof. Mohammed Adah, returned Gemade as validly elected about 11pm on Monday.The announcement laid to rest the conflicting accounts since Saturday over which of the two politicians won the election. Incidentally, Gemade is a former National Chairman of the PDP, who




defected from the party to the APC after Suswam showed interest in the senate seat. Gemade joins Senate President, David Mark, and another former governor of the state, Mr. George Akume, as the winners for Benue-North and Benue-South senatorial districts respectively. In Bauchi State, Governor Yuguda lost his bid to represent Bauchi-South from the senatorial district in the Senate as he was defeated by Mallam Ali Wakili of the APC. ADVERTISEMENT The Collation Officer and Rector of the Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi, Dr. Shuibu Musa, while declaring the result, announced that Wakili scored 341, 708 votes to defeat Yuguda who scored 115, 575 votes. Yuguda lost to Wakili in all the seven local government areas of the state which make up the senatorial district. A breakdown of the results indicated that Wakili scored 134, 528 votes in Bauchi Local Government Area where the governor hails from while Yuguda got 23, 945. In Dass Local Government Area, Yuguda scored 11, 923 while Wakili got 17, 009. While Wakili scored 73, 033 votes in Toro Local Government Area, Yuguda polled 30, 401 votes. In Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area, where Wakili hails from, the governor scored 23, 519 votes as against the 40, 147 scored by Wakili. The total votes scored by Wakili scored 264, 777 votes in the four Local Governments is 264, 777 while Yuguda scored 89, 788. Results for Alkaleri showed that Yuguda got 10, 308 to lose to Wakili who pooled 42, 660. The APC Candidate scored 18, 878 in Kirfi while that of the PDP got just 4, 016. The last result from Bogoro indicated that Wakili won with. 15,396 to beat Yuguda who scored 11, 231. It will be recalled that in 2007, the then Governor Adamu Mu’azu, (now National Chairman of the PDP) lost to Senator Bala Mohammed in what was considered an upset, thereby truncating Mu’azu’s ambition to become a senator after eight years as a governor. Also, Alhaji Usman Nafada, the candidate of the APC has been declared winner of the election into Gombe North senatorial district in Gombe State. Announcing the result in Malam/Sidi headquarters of Kwami Local Government Area on Monday, the Returning Officer, Malama Amina Ahmed, said Nafada polled 166,062 votes to defeat Alhaji Abdulkair Saleh of the PDP who scored 32,126 votes. The APC candidate Alhaji Yahaya Tongo also won the election into Gombe, Kwami and Funakaye Federal constituency with 130,131 votes. The Returning Officer, Malama Zainab Inusa said Alhaji Ya’u Hassan Marafa of the PDP came second with 20, 576 votes. The House of Representatives election into Dukku/Nafada Federal Constituency in Gombe state was won by Hajiya Aishatu Dukku of the APC with 22,838 votes. The returning officer of the election, Inusa Abubakar, said Dukku defeated Alhaji Sambo Sa’ad of the PDP who came second with 4,106 votes.