Nasir El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State, on Monday,
September 21, 2020, suggested he was surprised at the loss of the All
Progressive Congress, APC, in the recently concluded Edo State Governorship
Election.
The governor said three weeks to the election, polls indicated
that the APC was set to win.
However, on Sunday, the Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC, declared incumbent Godwin Obaseki of the Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP, as the winner of the election and governor of the state for the
next four years.
“We would have loved to win,” El-Rufai said, during an
interview on Sunrise Daily. “Quite frankly I was optimistic.
“Up to three weeks ago, the polls indicated that we were
going to win. I don’t know what happened in the last two, three weeks of the
campaign.
“As you know, a large number of voters make up their minds
in the last two weeks of an election. Many voters decide, no matter what
happens, this is how I am voting. But most people want to wait and watch and
make up their minds in the last two weeks.
“Three weeks ago, the polls clearly showed that APC was
going to win, but the results came out differently from what we expected.”
However, Governor El-Rufai commended how the election played
out and commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his policy of non-interference
in elections.
“The election was reasonably decent,” Governor El Rufai is
quoted as saying by Channels TV. “We were all worried about violence; there was
very little violence or none at all. So Obaseki has won, that’s it. You can’t
go into an election without adverting your mind to the possibility of losing.
“And one thing President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has
always done is to say that there must be free and fair election and the
people’s choice must prevail.
“And the President has never used what is called Federal Might that other governments have used in the past to steal elections. We always insist that everyone should go and pitch to the people and may the best man win. And we can live with it.”
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