APC Primaries: Ex-SMEDAN Boss, Dikko Wins Katsina Guber Ticket

Former Executive Director of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency SMEDAN, Dikko Radda, has been confirmed as the All Progressives Congress, APC flag-bearer for Katsina State 2023 governorship election.

His confirmation comes after polling highest votes at the party’s primaries held on Thursday, May 27, 2022, Naija News reports.

Radda had won the APC ticket with just a little margin from Mustapha Inuwa, the former Secretary to the State Government and Abbas Umar Masanawa, the immediate past CEO of Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc.

Naija News understands that Radda polled 506 votes in the tight contest. Dr Inuwa had come second with a total of 442 votes while Masanawa secured 436 votes to occupy the third position.

Surprisingly too, the former managing director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Ahmed Dangiwa, who was also touted as one of the major contenders in the race, came a distant 4th with 220 votes.

The outcome of the APC primaries was confirmed shortly after the exercise headed by the Chairman of the electoral committee, Barrister Lawal Shehu Kaka.

See below the results for other aspirants in the contest as released by the electoral body in the early hour of Friday:

• Faruk Jobe – 71 votes
• Deputy Governor, Mannir Yakubu – 65 votes
• Sadiq Yar’adu’a – 32 votes and Abdulkarim Dauda – 7 votes.

Meanwhile, Senator Yakubu Lado had won the Governorship ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the state earlier.

The aspirant secured a total of 740 votes to beat his main challenger, Salisu Yusuf Majigiri who secured 257 votes.

With this development, it is now clear that the 2023 battle for the Katsina Government House and who succeeds Governor Aminu Masari will be between Senator Yakubu Lado of the PDP and Dr Dikko Radda of the APC, Naija News reports.