Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party has emerged the winner of Adamawa gubernatorial election that was held on March 18.

Mr Fintiri, who was first elected governor in 2019 on the same party line, polled 421,522 to defeat his main challenger Aishatu ‘Binani’ Ahmed of the All Progressives Congress, who polled 390,275.

The results were compiled by Peoples Gazette from local government tallies. The final decision will shortly be announced by the collation officer Muhammad Laminu Mele, a professor and deputy vice chancellor of the University of Maiduguri. 

Mr Fintiri, 55, defeated an incumbent, Jibrilla Bindow of the APC, in 2019 to become governor. He has been a constant feature in Adamawa politics for years, serving first as a member of the Adamawa State House of Assembly.

In 2014, he served briefly as the acting governor from July to October after a political crisis led to the impeachment of then-Governor Murtala Nyako

Mr Fintiri’s victory has prolonged the emergence of Nigeria’s first elected female governor. After securing her party’s ticket and throughout the election cycle, Mrs Ahmed was seen as the best chance yet for a woman to be elected as governor in Nigeria’s 62 years of post-independence politics. 

Briefly, on Sunday, a day after the election, congratulatory messages flooded the social media for Mrs Ahmed. But the celebration came while the collation of results was still underway, and the results circulated by faceless people on social media turned out to be false.