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By Salihu Pirkusu, Maiduguri
Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, came to a standstill on Friday as thousands of cheering supporters gathered to welcome Governor Babagana Umara Zulum and his anointed governorship candidate, Engr Mustapha Gubio.
The gigantic crowd stretched from the Muhammadu Buhari International Airport to major roads leading to the metropolis.
Governor Zulum and his entourage were returning from a high-level meeting in the nation’s capital where he formally introduced Engr. Mustapha Gubio to Vice President Kashim Shettima.
During that closed-door session, Vice President Shettima, former governor of Borno State, threw his support behind it, officially endorsing Gubio as the consensus candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to run for the governorship in 2027.
Addressing the crowd at Government House, Zulum described the homecoming as “a testimony to the unbroken unity and political maturity of Borno”.
Zulum has presented Engineer Mustapha Gubio as his preferred successor after purchasing the party’s nomination and expression of interest forms for the 2027 governorship election on the APC platform last Monday.
The governor noted that Gubio’s choice was to sustain the momentum of his administration’s ongoing development service delivery since 2019.
Also in his brief speech, the nominated candidate, Eng. Gubio, thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima and Governor Babagana Zulum as well as stakeholders and people of Borno for giving him the opportunity to run for governor on the platform of the ruling APC.
He pledged to consolidate the modest gains achieved under the current administration for the betterment of Borno and the country as a whole.
He called on all and sundry to come and vote en masse for him and other candidates seeking various positions on the APC platform for the 2027 general elections.
Zulum’s entourage from Abuja includes the Deputy Governor, Umar Usman Kadafur, APC National Vice President, Ali Bukar Dalori, former Governor, Maina Ma’aji Lawan, Senators Mohammed Tahir Monguno, Mohammed Ali Ndume and Kaka Shehu Lawan and the Minister of Agriculture, Abubakar Kyari.
Also part of Zulum’s entourage are the Speaker of the Borno State House of Assembly, Abdulkarim Lawan, some members of the National Assembly and party stakeholders.
