Ebun Francis|
President Muhammadu Buhari will convincingly win the 2019 presidential election with or without the aggrieved members of the nPDP who last week threatened to pull out of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Kaduna state governor, Nasir el Rufai has said.
In an interview with State House correspondents in Abuja on Tuesday, El-Rufai said President Buhari would be re-elected, with or without the threatening former PDP members.
“I don’t agree and I want to go back to 2003. What are we talking about? Who are these new PDP people that are threatening? This is Kwara, Kano, Sokoto, Adamawa, Rivers but I don’t think Amaechi is part of them.
“So let’s take these four states, go back to 2003 and check. Buhari then under ANPP won in all these four states. Go back to 2007, Buhari won in these four states. Even when Shakarau was running as a presidential candidate in 2011, Buhari defeated him in Kano.
“And, I have no doubt in my mind that even if the people threatening to leave, leave, it will have absolutely no impact on the presidential elections, the president will win Sokoto, Kwara, and Adamawa easily.
“Kano is already in the bag, I mean if you saw the crowd that welcome the president without the former governor Kwankwaso, Kano has always been the president’s base.
“To me, that is not the issue, the issue is that they have written, they have expressed grievances, some of the grievances are legitimate and should be looked into.
“But to threaten to leave the party is neither here nor there. If they are honest with themselves they know that President Buhari will win those states with or without them.’’
The Kaduna state governor was in the State House to update President Buhari on the outcome of last Saturday’s Local Government elections in his state and the use of electronic voting system during the exercise.
He told journalists that he also used the opportunity to welcome the president from his recent trips to America and London.