Admiral Murtala Nyako (retd) wins the re-run of the Adamawa State governorship election, bringing into focus the question of the future political relevance of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar

By Desmond Utomwen& Ben Adaji

For about 61 days, the hope of ousted Governor Murtala Nyako to return to the Government House of Adamawa State hung in the balance. On Saturday 26 April, however, the people of the state spoke through their votes, returning Nyako to the coveted seat in the governorship re-run. Consequently, he was sworn in on 30 April.

In the result of the election declared by Dr. Abdul Bulama, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in charge of the state, Nyako defeated 11 other contestants by polling 361,729 votes as against his closest rival, Ibrahim Bapetel of the Action Congress, AC, who scored 201,767. Nyako also scored the highest votes cast in all the 21 local government areas of the state. The data released showed that the state has a total of 1,314,932 registered voters. Of this figure, 828,042 ballots were cast, out of which 701,196 were recorded as valid and 126,846 invalid.

The re-run was in response to the Appeal Court’s affirmation of the verdict of the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which had earlier nullified Nyako’s victory in the 14 April 2007 election. The appellate court directed the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct a fresh governorship election within 90 days of the judgment. The election was voided on grounds that the AC candidate, Ibrahim Bapetel, was unlawfully excluded from the contest last year even though he was validly nominated.

To the victorious Nyako, the election result was a reflection of the people’s confidence in him. While thanking the people for renewing his mandate, he extended an olive branch to the opposition, asking them to join hands with him in the onerous quest to take the state out of the woods. He added that he was prepared to transform Adamawa and justify the people’s confidence in him.

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