A former Governor of Niger state, Babangida Aliyu, has said that People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar will win the elections next year
The former Governor said this during an interactive session with reporters in Kaduna
According to Aliyu, Atiku will win the elections as long as there are no underhanded means or machinations going on.
“Believe me, not only in my state, I believe that if the elections are free and fair, if there is no rigging, if the security agencies are not used against our party, we will make it. We will win,” he said.
“Atiku will defeat Buhari squarely”
The former governor also spoke on the current controversy involving President Buhari and his refusal to sign the Electoral Act. Aliyu said that the National Assembly cannot go ahead to force his hand on the matter.
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“If the national assembly feels very strongly, they should be able to over-ride the veto,” he noted.
“But if it will create problems for the moment, we can wait. I understand that some of the conditions the president gave was that the electoral act could start with the next election and not this particular one.
“But I think that we need to be careful under his watch, to make sure that we don’t have any problem with the 2019 elections.
“In 2015, we understand what happened and everybody rallied round, even though the difference in the votes was not much, given the population of voters in the country.
“But if the Electoral Act Amendment Bill is not signed by the president and not over ridden by the national assembly, then it means we will use the old law and we will have no basis for asking anybody whether card reader has been used or not.
“We appeal to the president either to reconsider his position or appeal to the national assembly to look at it again.”