The Kano state government has dismissed as untrue claim by the former governor of Kano state, Rabi’u Kwankwaso, that Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje did not win the 2019 gubernatorial election but imposed on the people by powerful forces.
This is coming a day after Mr Ganduje hinted, in his New Year message, at reconciliation with his estranged boss.
A statement by the commissioner for Information, Muhammad Garba, said contrary to the assertion made in an interview with a national daily, Mr Kwankwaso managed a well-organized election rigging network, particularly in the metropolitan local governments, where youth, mostly without even voters’ card were engaged to perpetrate the act.
He said 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.
Mr Garba pointed out that it was unfortunate that as a leader who was severally involved in the election process, Mr Kwankwaso is still contesting the result of an election conducted by statutory body and upheld by courts of law.
The commissioner said just some few days ago, Mr 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 said apparently, the interview Mr 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.
Mr Garba stated that Mr Kwankwaso should have thanked Mr Ganduje for completing many of the projects he abandoned, saying that the people of Kano have benefitted from unparalleled policy of continuity that saw the completion of many projects in the last six years in the state.
These projects include Aminu Dantata Flyover, Yahaya Gusau Road and Prince Audu Underpass, Five kilometre roads in Dawakin Tofa, Ungogo, Warawa, Rano and Tofa local governments; Mahmoud Salga Road, Jaba-Rimin Kebe Road, Independent Power Project at Tiga and Challawa Dams, among many others.
On the issue of education, which Kwankwaso talk big, the commissioner further noted that as far as education is concern, the Ganduje administration has done a lot including payment of burden of over 15 billion backlog of scholarships to indigent students overseas left by the Kwankwaso administration.
He said so far, the sum of N3.5 billion has been paid for students in Sudan; N4.5 billion for Cyprus; N384 million for those in France, while it is in the process of paying students in Egypt and India.
Mr Garba said in addition to the implementation of the Free and Compulsory Basic and Secondary Education, the administration has been able to carry out massive infrastructure development in all its tertiary institutions and accreditation of many courses they offer.
The statement assured that 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.
