Nasir el-Rufai, governor of
Kaduna state, says Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), must have been dreaming when he said he defeated
President Muhammadu Buhari in Kaduna.
Atiku had told the election
petition tribunal that Kaduna was among the states where the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) in connivance with the All Progressives
Congress (APC) robbed him of his victory.
But speaking with state house
correspondents after meeting with Buhari on Friday, the governor said Atiku had
never won in the north-west state since he started contesting presidential
election.
Atiku has contested in at least
three different presidential elections.
“Well, I heard about that.
Initially, I thought it was a joke and when I checked I saw clearly that he
said he won Kaduna. It must be in his dreams,” he said.
“Let me say this without any fear
of contradiction, since President Buhari started contesting for the presidency
since 2003, he has never lost Kaduna. So, PDP has never won elections in Kaduna
from 2003, even with a sitting governor in 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015. It has never
happened.
“I don’t know what will happen
that Atiku will win Kaduna in this elections this time. He lost Kaduna, he lost
very badly, even though about 100,000 votes he claimed to have got were added
because elections conducted without card reader in some parts of the state,
that’s how he even got up to the 400,000 that he got.
“He has lost Kaduna, he will
always lose Kaduna, he will lose Kaduna 10 more times because he has never won
Kaduna in any presidential elections.”
When reminded that the results
were from INEC server, the governor said, “Well, I don’t know about INEC
server, it must be Atiku’s server. I don’t know about INEC server, we don’t
know how they had access to it, they will tell us during the tribunal
proceedings what is this server and how they got access to it and how they got
their numbers.
“You do not go to court in an
election petition by quoting INEC server or any other server. Anyone can create
a server, I can go an buy it, it is a piece of equipment and call it INEC
server. But that does not mean that it amounts to anything, we are guided by
the electoral act and the evidence act and other enabling legislation and he
has to proof his case. But anyone can make claims, we live in the age of fake
news and fake claims. Anyone can make claims but you have to proof it.”
El-Rufai, who said he was in the
presidential villa to inform Buhari that he was never involved in an accident,
said those spreading such rumours about him could be brought before the law.
“I came to see Mr. President
after my re-election as governor because immediately after the election I took
a break. I came back to report to him that I was not involved in an accident,
I’m alive, I am not in coma and also to discuss other issues related to my
state,” he said.
“My advice to everyone in Nigeria
is to avoid forwarding stories that have not been verified. Social media provides
platform for disseminating information but it is also a platform for
dissemination of lies and hatred. We should be very careful that we don’t use
this platform to advance the cause of the enemies of this country.
“I was never involved in any
accident, I was not near any accident, in fact at a time I was supposed to be
involved in an accident, I was in an aircraft going to another country. But
somebody sat and concocted this story and we are trying to trace who started
it. Because, criminal proceedings can be initiated against the person.
Sometimes it is very difficult to know who started it but we are on it. My
advice is that we should rely on reliable news medium, not just any platform or
any blog. Unless we hear something from a very reliable news medium, we should
be reluctant to begin sharing it as if it is true.”
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