Mohammed Abubakar won the All Progressives Congress governorship primary in Bauchi State on Saturday, defeating Yusuf Tuggar and five other aspirants to clinch the party’s ticket for the 2027 election. John Abang announced that Abubakar polled 57,517 votes and declared him the party’s flagbearer after results were compiled from across the state.
Tuggar finished second with 26,001 votes. Nura Manu Soro scored 13,638 votes, Bala Wunti 13,648, Kabir Ma’aji 8,157, Baba Abubakar Suleiman 7,688 and Yakubu Yakubu Abdullahi 7,181. The scale of Abubakar’s margin gives the APC a clear standard-bearer, but it also shows how crowded the field was before the ballots were counted.
The primary took place after a politically charged run-up. Tuggar resigned from his position on March 30 after President Bola Tinubu directed political appointees seeking elective office in 2027 to leave office. Shehu Umar Buba also withdrew from the contest in a letter dated 10 May, citing alleged breaches of the Nigerian Constitution, the APC constitution and the party’s guidelines.
Buba said the situation had become “illegal, undemocratic and unacceptable,” arguing that a few people had subverted the will of the majority and reversed the party’s growing fortunes. He also referred to “anti-democratic forces” in his withdrawal notice, a sharp rebuke that underlined the factional strain around the Bauchi race. The internal fight echoed other political resets around the region, from the ministerial change reported in the Joseph Tegbe nomination to the coalition pressures that forced Evika Silina out in Latvia.
For the APC, Saturday’s result settles the immediate battle for Bauchi’s ticket. Abubakar now carries the party into the 2027 governorship race, while the vote totals and the withdrawals behind them suggest the bigger test will be whether the party can hold together after a primary that laid its divisions bare.
