Why I couldn’t deliver 5m votes to Buhari – Ganduje
Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State, yesterday, said he couldn’t deliver five million votes to President Muhammadu Buhari because of low turnout during Saturday’s presidential election.
Ganduje had pledged to deliver five million votes to the president. Buhari polled 1,464,768 votes and his closest rival and candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, scored 391,593 votes.
Our correspondent reports that out of the 5,457,747 registered voters in Kano, only 4.7m collected their permanent voters’ cards, a figure below the 5m Ganduje promised even if all had cast their votes.
Speaking to State House correspondents during a congratulatory visit to the state house, Ganduje blamed his inability to deliver the five million votes on low turnout.
“Well, I told you because of the low turnout… Let’s wait for the governorship election,” he said.
He said those who were alleging that Kano votes were manipulated were unserious and anti-democracy.
“They are not serious people. They are anti-democracy. If you see how the elections were conducted, INEC tried very well and even though there was low turnout. We were aspiring to have much more but alhamdulillah, the elections were free and fair.
“Those who are saying that we couldn’t have gotten that much, I think they are ignorant of Kano politics,” he said.
He said his chances of winning the forthcoming governorship election in Kano were very high.
“The beginning of it is the presidential election; we gave him (Buhari) the highest number of votes. All the three senators are back, they have won their elections and we won all the 24 House of Representatives seats. What else are you expecting? That’s the foundation,” he said.
Describing Buhari as the most honest person in Nigeria, Ganduje said, “I wish to thank Nigerians for voting for the most honest person in Nigeria because he has laid the foundation for the development of a new Nigeria.
“He is a man who loves Nigeria more than himself; a man who believes in free and fair elections. I think we are forging ahead in terms of getting things right in Nigeria,” Ganduje said.