Ganduje Says Shocker Awaits PDP At Supplementary Polls

Abdullah Ganduje

The Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, has advised the PDP and its candidate to be prepared of the shocker that awaits them on March 23 because the APC had gone back to the drawing board.
The governor, who spoke through the state Commissioner for Information, Youth and Culture and Chairman, Publicity 2019 Election, Mallam Muhammad Garba, said, “The APC as a party has also re-strategised and very confident of victory because the local government areas where the rerun will take place remain the APC strongholds and the electorate in these areas have made up their minds to vote massively for the governor they trust.”

However, the state PDP governorship candidate, Abba Yusuf, has expressed confidence that he will emerge victorious anytime the run-off is held.
This was contained in a statement signed on his behalf by his spokesman, Sanusi Dawakin-Tofa, in Kano on Tuesday.

He accused the ruling APC of electoral fraud which he said was responsible for cases of over-voting which led to the cancellation of results from 172 polling units, thus reducing the margin of PDP’s victory which led to the declaration of the election as inconclusive.
Yusuf said, “Kano people have glaringly seen how the enemies of democracy who are high ranking officials of the state government, including the serving deputy governor, and others vandalised an election collation centre with a sole aim of truncating the declaration process to deny PDP of victory.”

He also said, “It is our prayer that all election offenders would be charged to court at the earliest possible time to serve as a deterrent to all anti-democratic forces.
“We call on all supporters to remain calm; we are known to be peace lovers and so we shall remain, as we are very sure of victory during the rerun.
“Our supporters should not forget that the PDP is already leading in the last count of the election and interestingly, the bye-election would take place in the strongest areas of our party.”

Meanwhile, the Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II has appealed for calm following tension generated by the outcome of Saturday’s governorship election.
INEC had declared the Kano governorship election inconclusive following the cancellation of results from some polling units.

The number of cancelled votes was more than the margin of win between the winner and the first runner-up.
Sanusi made the appeal at a media briefing in his Palace, in Kano on Tuesday.
Tension had built up among supporters of the incumbent governor, Abdullahi Ganduje of the APC and his main challenger, Abba Yusuf of the PDP, following INEC’s declaration.
Yusuf had polled 1,014,474 while Ganduje garnered 987,819 in the keenly contested election.

Although the APC won in 28 out of the 44 Local Government Areas, the number of votes scored was not enough to counter that of the PDP which won in the remaining 16 decisive LGAs.
Some residents had remained indoors for fear of a possible breakdown of law and order as a result of the bitter campaigns.

But the Emir urged residents and citizens of the state especially politicians to avoid unguided statements capable of causing a breach of the peace.
He said, “The law empowers only INEC to announce results of election and that should be respected; therefore, those sharing results not released by the electoral body should stop it.

“INEC is the only body accorded the power under the law to announce election results and it has done that announcing the election as inconclusive, hence, there will be re-run.
“Politicians should not see elections as war but rather a contest that should be conducted in friendly atmosphere.”

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