From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna
Kaduna State Governor Mallam Nasiru El-Rufai has lost to the opposition Peoples Democratic party (PDP) at his Polling Unit 001 Ungwar Sarki, Kaduna North local government area of the state.
The presiding Officer of the unit, Muhammed Sani , who announced the result said the All Progressives Congress(APC) for the Chairmanship election polled 62 votes while PDP scored 86 votes out of the 159 votes cast.
In the councillorship election, APC also polled 53 votes while PDP scored 100 votes out of the 162 vote cast
However, Governor Nasir El-Rufai shortly after casting his vote said, “we are not going to behave like other parties or other state governments of the ruling party. We will allow the people of Kaduna State to elect who they want”
“We do not have to win everywhere, though we have worked for the people of Kaduna State, they have seen our foot print, the govt and the local government everywhere, they have seen and we are confident that all reasonable minded people will vote for our party, our candidate because they know we are committed to the welfare of the people”.
“We don’t believe in cheating, we don’t believe in rigging election, but also we don’t believe that other people should cheat us. And that is why we encouraged SIECOM to come up with a very improved system and am impressed with the whole thing.
“Technology is key to minimising cheating in election, unless we have credible election we can never have good leaders, accountable leaders and that is why we are committed, even if it means we are going to lose in some areas, this is democracy, it is a gradual process”, he noted.
Meanwhile, the opposition party, PDP has raised the alarm, saying that the electronic voting process has been compromised to favour the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
The PDP stakeholders led by the Party’s Publicity Secretary, Albera Catoh and Dr AbdulRahman Usman, stormed the NUJ Secretariat in Kaduna, saying that the Electronic Voting Machine that were supposed to start reading from zero have been programmed to give the ruling party advantage over others.
According to the duo, “the integrity of the results have been compromised. PDP went into this election against Sielcom, the APC and Governor Nasir el-Rufai. There was a ward in Barnawa (Kaduna South local government area) where the result printed as at 10am this morning (Saturday) reads 182 for APC and 18 for PDP giving all other parties zero.
“Despite the poor state of finance in the state, a humongous amount of money have been wasted on the electronic voting machine, which has largely been compromised. Public funds have been diverted and mismanaged.
“The machine were functioning well but despite our warnings and cries ahead of the elections, the results have been programmed to give APC advantage over other political parties. The integrity of the process has been compromised, the integrity of the machine has been compromised.
“In the election, it is APC, Sielcom and El-Rufai against the people of Kaduna and other political parties.
“In Igabi local government, seven persons were shot as there were efforts to cart away electoral materials. How can we get free, fair election in such a situation,” the PDP stalwarts said.
