Pantami Wins PDP Ticket for Gombe Governorship Election

Former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, is back as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the 2027 Gombe State governorship election. He won the party’s rerun primary election, which was backed by Nyesom Wike.

Mr Pantami beat two other candidates, Usman Garry and Hamisu Mailantarki, during the exercise held on Tuesday across the 11 local government areas in the state.

Temnung Shekarau, the Chairman of the Electoral Committee, announced the results at the Gombe State PDP Secretariat. He said 2,555 voters registered for the primary.

Mr Pantami received 2,054 votes, which is about 80 percent of the total votes cast. Mr Mailantarki got 389 votes, while Mr Garry managed to secure 112 votes.

This rerun came after a court decision on 24 September. Justice Amina Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Gombe nullified the first primary that had named Mr Pantami as the candidate.

The court ordered the PDP to conduct a new primary to follow its constitution. This was due to legal issues raised by Mr Garry.

Mr Pantami was first declared the PDP candidate on 26 May through voice affirmation. He switched to the PDP from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) after losing the APC governorship ticket to the consensus candidate, Jamilu Gwamna.

He was initially named the Nyesom Wike-backed PDP flagbearer during the 26 May primary via voice affirmation. But other candidates challenged this in court, saying a voice vote did not follow the democratic voting rules set by the Electoral Act and the PDP constitution.

The Federal High Court in Gombe decided on 24 September that the first selection was not valid. The court directed the party to conduct a proper ballot-based primary rerun within 30 days.

The rerun on 29 September gave Mr Pantami a legally recognized victory. This confirmed his place on the official PDP ballot for the 2027 election.