As the APC has lost to the PDP in the just concluded Local Government election, even at the local government unit of the governor, El-Rufai, he has absolved himself from the loss of his party, but instead said,’’ the vote of the people was not against him but the Councillor and the Chairman of the Local Government Council.
According to E-l Rufai,’’ the vote was not a referendum on him. He said the fact that his polling unit was won by the PDP showed that democracy prevailed.
This statement was made by El –Rufai as monitored on Channel’s TV‘s Daily Programme on Monday.
Rufai said’’, Those that reported that the machines were programmed were ashamed when it was reported that the APC lost in my polling unit. People were laughing that I lost my polling unit, but it is democracy that won.’’.
‘’ I’m not on the ballot, so it is not a referendum on me, it is a referendum on the Councillor and the performance of the Chairman of the Local Government Council. The loss of my polling unit shows that we did not programme these machines, we did not influence on Independent Electoral Commission, and the whole thing has worked very well.
‘’The results of the election so far are a unifying moment for our State which is what we have been working on. We want to work against the narrative that the PDP is a party for a part of the State, while the APC is a party for another. Some people say PDP is a party of religious affiliation, while the APC is that of another’’.
‘’The results of the election clearly show that we are finally unifying Kaduna State and people are making choices based on the performance of the elected officials’’.
Nasir-El-Rufai also gave a recapitulation on what was going on in some of the Local Governments where elections were conducted.
He said,’’ There are issues that came u and the Electoral Commission is working on them. Two LGAs are still contentious, the results have not been communicated to me.. I have been told that Kachia, one of the LGAs, the election is inconclusive because the machines did not function in many polling units.
Soba is awaited, but so far, I will say that the exercise has gone reasonably well.
‘’There is little we can do to avoid thugs snatching electoral machines but you should know that these machines are programmed to be disconnected remotely by the Electoral Commission. The machine also provides its GPS location, so, you can target and go and recover it.
(Channel TV)