Atiku day-dreaming over claims he won in Kaduna – El-Rufai
The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, says the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar, is ‘day-dreaming’ for claiming he won in Kaduna State in the last presidential election.
Mr El-Rufai said the former vice president lost Kaduna and will always lose Kaduna.
“He will lose Kaduna 10 more times because he has never won Kaduna in any presidential elections,” he said.
Mr El-Rufai stated this in a brief interview with journalists after a meeting Friday with President Muhammadu Buhari in Aso Rock.
The governor was asked to react to a claim by Mr Abubakar that he won the presidential elections, particularly in Kaduna.
Backstory
The PDP and its presidential candidate in a petition filed on Monday said it won the February 23 election with about 1.6 million votes to defeat President Muhammadu Buhari.
The party claimed that the computer server of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ”revealed this”.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Abubakar also claimed he won in four of the states – Gombe, Niger, Kogi, and Kaduna – that INEC declared were won by President Buhari.
A Joke
“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,” the Kaduna governor who was reelected in the governorship elections 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 were conducted without card reader in some parts of the state, that’s how he even got up to the 400,000.”
The governor explained that such results can only emanate from ‘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 and 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 prove his case.”
Mr El-Rufai further explained his reasons for visiting the president. He also debunked speculations that he was involved in an accident.
“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.”
There was a rumor a few days ago that Mr El-Rufai sustained injuries from a road mishap. The governor described such rumors as false.
“I was never involved in an accident, I was not near any accident, in fact at the 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.”