Kaduna state governor, Nasir el-Rufai, has said that Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), can only defeat President Muhammadu Buhari in Kaduna in his dreams.
In his petition at the Presidential Elections petition Tribunal, Atiku had said that Kaduna was among the states where the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in connivance with the All Progressives Congress (APC) robbed him of his victory.
But speaking with newsmen after meeting with Buhari on Friday, el-Rufai said Atiku had never won in the north-west state for the three times he has contested a presidential election.
“Well, I heard about that. Initially, I thought it was a joke and when I checked I saw clearly that he said he won Kaduna. It must be in his dreams,” he was quoted as saying.
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“Let me say this without any fear of contradiction, since President Buhari started contesting for the presidency since 2003, he has never lost Kaduna. So, PDP has never won elections in Kaduna from 2003, even with a sitting governor in 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015. It has never happened.
“I don’t know what will happen that Atiku will win Kaduna in this elections this time. He lost Kaduna, he lost very badly, even though about 100,000 votes he claimed to have got were added because elections conducted without card reader in some parts of the state, that’s how he even got up to the 400,000 that he got.
“He has lost Kaduna, he will always lose Kaduna, he will lose Kaduna 10 more times because he has never won Kaduna in any presidential elections.”
When reminded that the results were from INEC server, the governor said, “Well, I don’t know about INEC server, it must be Atiku’s server. I don’t know about INEC server, we don’t know how they had access to it, they will tell us during the tribunal proceedings what is this server and how they got access to it and how they got their numbers.
“You do not go to court in an election petition by quoting INEC server or any other server. Anyone can create a server, I can go an buy it, it is a piece of equipment and call it INEC server. But that does not mean that it amounts to anything, we are guided by the electoral act and the evidence act and other enabling legislation and he has to proof his case. But anyone can make claims, we live in the age of fake news and fake claims. Anyone can make claims but you have to proof it.”