*Says: ‘We still have one more major mandate to reclaim’
The Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate in the February 25, 2023 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has lauded Umaru Fintiri’s re-election as the Governor of Adamawa State, describing it as a win for democracy.
Aishatu ‘Binani’ Dahiru Ahmed of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was earlier declared the winner by an official of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) even before the collation of results for the supplementary exercise ended, a move that the Commission nullified.
But following the conclusion of the rescheduled collation, Fintiri, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, was declared the winner of the highly-dramatic poll Tuesday, beating his closest rival ‘Binani’.
Minutes after the declaration, Atiku said the triumph proves that good can overcome bad.
“Congratulations, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri on your deserved re-election as governor of Adamawa State. Thank you to the people of Adamawa and men and women of goodwill for staying the course in resisting ‘coupists’ and enemies of democracy from having their way,” the Adamawa-born former vice president tweeted.
“The lesson from this exercise and others is the need for Nigerians to be vigilant and never give in to anti-democratic forces whose objective is to snatch, run with and undermine the mandate of the people as freely expressed in their votes.”
Following Fintiri’s victory, Atiku is optimistic about winning at the presidential election tribunal where he is challenging Bola Tinubu’s emergence as Nigeria’s leader.
“By the way it is not yet Uhuru, as we still have one more major mandate to reclaim; and together as ONE, we shall accomplish the task for the good of our country and its people,” he added.