PDP Does Not Exist in Kaduna, Says el-Rufai’s Political Adviser

John Shiklam in Kaduna

The Special Adviser to the Kaduna State governor on Political Matters Uba Sani has said that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) no longer exists in the state.

Speaking in an interview with journalists in Kaduna shortly after the state congress of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Saturday, Sani maintained that the recent council polls in which the APC won 14 councils against PDP’s four (five councils are still pending) was a clear indication that the PDP is not relevant in Kaduna State.

According to him, the results of the elections show that the people will re-elect Governor Nasir el-Rufai in the 2019 general election.

He said aside from el-Rufai’s popularity, the electorate will vote him based on his track records and performance.

Sani, who was reacting to allegations by the PDP that he used the army and the police to manipulate results of the election in some councils in favour of the APC, said the PDP couldn’t have won a single seat if the election was not free and fair.

He maintained that the ruling APC was so magnanimous enough to have allowed the opposition party to win the four local government councils from the results announced so far.

According to him, if the state government was out to rig the election, it would have adopted the manual voting system and manipulated the process the way other states do across the country.

He said that the “PDP is dead,” adding that “some of us are really disappointed with some of the utterances of the PDP with regards to the outcome of the local council election in the state.”

Speaking further, he said: “You and I know that when election into local government is conducted in Nigeria, most opposition party cannot get even a single councillor but I think in the case of the state, the opposition even won some seats.

“I think the PDP is not fair to the governor and our government because we are able to conduct the freest election in the history of not even Kaduna State, but Nigeria; because this is an electronic voting that one can not even manipulate; you cannot rig election.

“If we really want to rig the election, we wouldn’t have gone through electronic voting system. We would have adopted the manual voting that every other states went through in the past.

“But I think seriously that the PDP are ungrateful to what we have done for them. In fact, I am even surprised that they won four local government areas because for me, PDP is dead in Kaduna State.”

He said the APC will challenge the results of the elections in the southern part of the state where the opposition won four councils.

Sani said: “I will tell you without any fear of contradictions that APC will win the election come 2019. I don’t believe that the PDP will even come close because the party only exist in few local governments of the state.

“They don’t even exist in zone one, they are not even strong in zone two, they only exist in few local governments in zone three. So, I don’t see how they can win election in Kaduna State.”