The Kano state governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Abba Yusuf, has expressed optimism that he would still win the re-run election coming up any time soon in the state.
On Tuesday, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared the state’s governorship election as inconclusive, after a stalemate in a fiercely contested exercise between the incumbent governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, and Mr Yusuf.
Declaring the result inconclusive, the Returning Officer for Kano State, Bello Shehu, said the cancellation became necessary as the total number of cancelled votes had exceeded the margin between the two leading candidates of PDP and APC.
Giving reasons for the cancellation, the professor said incidences of over-voting and violence in some polling units dotted across 22 local government areas of the state caused the cancellation.
He revealed that 172 polling units were affected in the cancellation.
However, in a statement on Tuesday by Mr Yusuf’s spokesman, Sanusi Dawakin-Tofa the governorship candidate stated that the ruling APC rigged in the election, which resulted to over-voting and eventual cancellation of 172 polling units, Daily Nigerian reports.
“Kano people have seen glaringly, how the enemies of democracy who are high ranking officials of the State Government, including serving Deputy Governor, Nasiru Gawuna, Commissioner Murtala Garo and Nassarawa Local Government Chairman Lamin Sani Kawaji vandalized an election collation centre with a sole aim of truncating the declaration process to deny PDP’s victory,” the statement reads in part.
The gubernatorial candidate also alleged that PDP reliably gathered that over 500 cartons of ballot papers were printed by Kano State Printing Press, syndicated to various polling units across the state, adding that over 10 cartons of the ballot paper were arrested by the Police.
“It is our prayer that all election offenders would be charged to courts at the earliest best time to serve as a deterrence for all anti-democracy.
“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 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,” he said
He added that, “we urge everyone to keep hope alive on our guest to rescue Kano from the hands of corrupt leaders and agents of distraction,”
The former Commissioner for Works in the state, therefore, called on the people living in the areas where the re-run election would take place to come out en masse to cast their votes for PDP, expressing hope that the party would still emerge victorious in the polls.
