BARRISTER DAVID UMARU
A former Niger State gubernatorial candidate on the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC), Barrister David Umaru, yesterday emerged the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the rescheduled August 30 Niger East senatorial by-election.
The seat became vacant following the death of Senator Dahiru Awaisu Kuta.
Announcing the results in Minna, the state capital, chairman of the APC state electoral committee, Inuwa Abdulkadir, said Barrister Umaru won the primary election of the party with 248 votes defeating his opponent, Bala Adamu Kuta, who garnered a paltry 62 votes.
Abdulkadir said the exercise which saw 326 delegates voting from the nine local government councils that made up the zone, was conducted in an environment free of rancour.
The Niger State APC had recently threatened to drag the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to court if it failed to conduct the by-election on August 16 as earlier announced.
INEC, however, blamed the change in date to logistics constraints.