Following controversies over the large turnout of voters in the war-ravaged Borno state, a former governor of the state, Ali Modu Sheriff, on Friday, said that degrading Boko Haram, among other achievements, of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, was one of the reasons for the massive turn out of voters in the state.
Recall that during the last Saturday’s Presidential elections, Mr Buhari polled 836,496 votes to beat Atiku Abubakar who scored 71,788 votes in the state.
However, speaking to State House correspondents after Friday prayers and a closed-door meeting with Mr Buhari behind closed-door at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Mr Modu-Sheriff said the votes were even below expectation.
According to him, activities of the insurgents in the state were responsible for delivering less than two million votes to Mr Buhari during the last Saturday’s presidential election.
“I don’t know why the PDP is grumbling where the registered voters are more than two million and we only gave the President 830,000.
“As a governor, the President got over a million votes in Borno; why didn’t they complain then? They are just crying foul for nothing.
“This election was the most transparent election that ever took place in the history of Nigeria and I stand to be corrected. They should just embrace peace.
“The president has said that he is going to carry everyone along; they should accept their defeat and re-plan for 2023 if we are all alive. But this election has been won and won transparently.
“President Muhammadu Buhari within the last four years has done more than what any other president has done in this country.
“He came into power when the oil price was less than $30 at a stage. I am not surprise about the victory because Nigerians are very smart people; we know what is good for our country; we know the right thing to do at any given point in time.
“If you look at the antecedents of all the people that contested elections with President Buhari, none has ten percent of his credibility. This is a man that is not interested in what every Nigerian is interested in, to grab wealth and enrich themselves.
“He is there for the Nigerian people; he believes Nigeria should be better than where we are. He had a very simple message at the campaigns: that we have started fighting corruption, building the economy and lives of Nigerians need to be improved.”
“The message resonated with Nigerians because, for instance, I did not go to my village for four years before the 2015 elections. Boko Haram had occupied all our local government areas in Borno but today, you can drive to any part of Borno.
“So, whatever the people of Borno did for Mr President last Saturday, we are only saying thank you for what he has done. If the atmosphere was clearer, Borno would have produced two million votes.”
