Kaduna state; the Nation's replica.

Austine Tsenzughul, Bauchi and Tony
AKOWE, Kaduna
Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa of Kaduna State
yesterday became the first elected southern Kaduna
governor of the state, just as his counterpart in Bauchi State,
Alhaji Isa Yuguda, was also declared the winner of the
governorship election in the state.
Yakowa defeated his closest rival and governorship candidate
of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) to emerge winner
of the governorship election conducted on Thursday.
The returning officer for the governorship election in the state
and Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria,
Prof. Abdullahi Mustapha, who announced the result, said that
the governor polled 1,339,487 votes to defeat his closest rival,
who polled 1,114,987 votes.
The governor’s victory threw his supporters into wild jubilation
across the state as residents hurried home from their offices for
fear that the outcome of the election might trigger another
round of crisis in the state.
While the PDP supporters could not go into the streets to
celebrate the victory, they were seen exchanging banter and
congratulating one another for a job well done, while leaders of
the party converged on the government lodge to rejoice with
the governor on his electoral victory.
The governor won the election in 12 of the 23 local government
areas in the state, obtaining the mandatory 25 per cent in 19
out of the 23 local government areas. The CPC candidate, who
came second, won the election in 11 local government areas
and scored 25 per cent of the total votes cast in 14 local
government areas of the state.
Yakowa won in Chikun, Giwa, Jaba, Jema’a, Kagarko, Kajuru,
Kaura, Kauru, Kudan, Sanga, Zangon Kataf and Kachia local
government areas, while the CPC candidate, Haruna Saeed, won
in Birnin Gwari, Igabi, Kaduna North, Kaduna South, Lere,
Makarfi, Sabon Gari, Soba, Ikara, Zaria and Kubau local
government areas.
The performance of the CPC in the elction fell short of pre-
election calculations. Pundits had predicted that the party would
do well, at least in the North-West and North-East, but it did not
win any governorship election except in Nassarawa where it
won only marginally.
Its candidate, Tanko Al-Makura, polled 324,823 to narrowly beat
his PDP rival and sitting governor, Aliyu Akwe-Doma, who
polled 320,938.
In Bauchi State, Yuguda on Thursday beat three major
challengers at the rescheduled governorship election in the
state to bag another four-year term. He contested for the state’s
number one job on the platform of the PDP.
His rivals included the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)’s
candidate, Sen. Bala Tela; Sen. Suleiman Nazeef Mohammed
Gamawa of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and Yusuf
Maitama Tuggar of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).
Yuguda was elected 0n April 14, 2007 as an ANPP governor after
defecting from the PDP at the governorship screening stage
when he was declared unfit. But in July 2008, just before his
marriage to late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s daughter,
Nafisat,Yuguda again returned to the PDP.
While he polled a total of 771, 503 votes, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar
of the CPC polled 238,462, while Suleiman Nazeef Mohammed
Gamawa of the All Nigeria Peoples Party and Baba Tella of the
Action Congress of Nigeria polled 102,093 and 157,237
respectively.