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Gov Abubakar Begs Tinubu As Buhari Refuses To Rig Bauchi Election

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Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed
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The Bauchi State incumbent governor, Mohammed Abubakar, who contested under the APC against the former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Bala Mohammed under the PDP – has opted to reach out to the power levers of the ruling party, the APC, to seek assistance in tilting the outcome of the March 23, 2019 supplementary election towards his favor.

The ruling APC is trailing the opposition Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate, Bala Muhammed, with 4,059 votes. The APC candidate and the governor scored 465,453 votes against the PDP’s 469,512 votes.

The March 9, 2019, gubernatorial election in Bauchi State had been deemed inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) following what appeared a closely contested election between the PDP candidate and the APC candidate.

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The INEC called the contest too close to call, thus inconclusive.

The pronouncement was controversial and greeted with disbelief.

Keen examination of the results by informed observers has however revealed the PDP candidate had clearly scored a higher number of votes to be declared the winner of the gubernatorial elections. Officials at the INEC have also seen the numbers and the difficulty in skewing the numbers to favour another candidate – this is because the numbers were already declared officially by the INEC.

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Appearing clear to the INEC officials involved on the Bauchi gubernatorial election, is the inevitability of a PDP victory.

According to 247ureports, INEC had since signalled the incumbent governor, impressing on him the inevitable reality. They made it vividly clear the impracticability of an APC victory.

With this, the incumbent governor sought the attention of President Muhammadu Buhari for assistance. The impromptu visit to the president was facilitated by the NTA top boss, Malam Yakubu – who also served as a one-time media assistant to the Governor.

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At the meeting, the Bauchi governor lamented over the outcome of the gubernatorial exercise in Bauchi – and called on Buhari to help retain the State for the APC. Abubakar told the President that Bauchi State was on the verge of slipping away from the APC if corrective actions are not taken. Abubakar was reported to have gone on his knees before President Buhari. Without acknowledging the gesture, Buhari discharged the governor – telling him that he will not interfere with Bauchi gubernatorial exercise.

Unrelenting, Governor Abubakar moved to the National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomole and the National Leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu. Both leaders were eager to see and hear the governor – and to seek avenues to recover or stop the PDP from taking Bauchi State.

According to sources near the governor, the trio discussed extensively on possible options to upturn the results favourably to the APC. The details of the discussion were not made available to 247ureports but it was clear the outcome of the talks was not sufficiently comforting.

On returning to Bauchi, the Governor decided to change his tactics. He opted for disbursement of money to the potential voters. He has since released the sum of N120million to his resource persons to distribute at the Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area.

Sources believe the Governor intends to incite mass protests should the PDP candidate be declared the winner.

The results of the governorship election from Tafawa Balewa was rejected by the state’s Returning Officer, Mohammed Kyari, after collation at the local government collation centre was disrupted by thugs.