‘You Managed Election Rigging Network In Kano’ — Ganduje Hits Back At Kwankwaso Over Interview

Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, has put aside his call for peace and reconciliation among “political gladiators” in Kano State to respond to a criticism against him by Senator Rabi’u Kwankwaso, his former boss and ex-governor of the state.

Ganduje responded swiftly to a media interview granted by Kwankwaso, where the former Kano Central Senator claimed that the governor rigged his way into office in the state’s 2019 governorship election.

“…God is wonderful. I am sure those who are in positions now must be regretting what they have done, especially in Kano. This country is fully aware that Ganduje lost the election in 2019 in Kano, but the powers that be ensured that they imposed him on the majority,” Kwankwaso told The Punch in an interview.

The former presidential aspirant had added, “We had the capacity to stop them and make sure that they were not allowed to perpetrate injustice, but we told our young men and women to cool down. We went through the courts. Unfortunately, everyone in this country knows what happened which was not good for the people. Courts are the last hope of the weak, but what we saw was really shocking. In any case, the eight years is almost gone with a year and some months remaining which would be dedicated to campaigns, and for him (Ganduje), court cases.

“And God is wonderful. Instead of us being weak, they are the ones getting weaker. Every day, we have people, the masses crossing to our side. Many of them who were below 18 years of age during the last elections, but are now of age, are coming to register with us. People are now asking how to get out of this mess. All the parties should understand that this time round, people will want to vote for their own and not for the leaders’ friends at the top. Anyone who is not accepted by the people is just wasting his time. All those who think they can use INEC and the police in 2023 again to get power are fools because the people are now really ready for change.”

THE WHISTLER had reported that amid his rift with some Kano political bigwigs including Kwankwaso and Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, Governor Ganduje had in his New Year message said that residents of the state were yearning for “much-needed peace and conciliation (among politicians in the state) in order to advance the cause for proper development” in Kano’s political terrain.

But responding to Kwankwaso’s attack in a statement issued by the state’s Commissioner for Information, Muhammad Garba, Ganduje dismissed the ex-senator’s claim as untrue.

He said, “…contrary to the assertion made in an interview with a national daily, Kwankwaso managed a well-organized election rigging network, particularly in the metropolitan local governments, where youth, mostly without even voters’ cards, were engaged to perpetrate the act.”

Garba claimed that, “it was vividly clear that barely hours into the voting, most of the ballot boxes were said have been stuffed, only for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to discover that either card readers were not used or the voters are not captured in its data and therefore had to cancel the results from many centres and declared the election inconclusive.”

The commissioner said it is “unfortunate that as a leader who was severally involved in the election process, Kwankwaso is still contesting the result of an election conducted by a statutory body and upheld by courts of law,” adding that, ” just some few days ago, Kwankwaso was all over the media cautioning his followers against unguarded utterances but ended up making incendiary rhetoric unbecoming a person of his caliber.”

He further said, “the interview Kwankwaso granted the national daily in which he attempted to rubbish the Ganduje administration has done him more harm than good which completely negates the spirit of a genuine peace and reconciliation he preached to his followers in the last few days to avoid derailing.

“… despite the agitation for reconciliation that is ongoing among party leaders, the Ganduje administration would accordingly react to any attempt to rubbish the laudable achievements it has recorded and will not be distracted from carrying on with the responsibility for which it was elected into office.”