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The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has said losing his polling unit in the just concluded local government election in the state is not a referendum on him.
His polling unit was won by the Peoples Democratic Party, a thing he described as a referendum on the councillor and the performance of the chairman of the local council.
El-Rufai, who made this known on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Monday, said the result at his polling unit shows that the electoral process was not influenced in any way.
He said, “Those that reported that the machines were programmed were ashamed when it was reported that APC lost in my polling unit. People were laughing that I lost my polling unit, but it is democracy that won.
“I’m not on the ballot, so it is not a referendum on me, it is a referendum on the councillor and the performance of the chairman of the local council. The loss of my polling unit shows that we did not programme these machines; we did not influence our independent electoral commission, and the whole thing has worked very well.
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“The results of the election so far are a unifying moment for our state which is what we have been working on. We want to work against the narrative that the PDP is a party for a part of the state, while the APC is a party for another. Some people say PDP is a party of a religious affiliation, while the APC is that of another.
“The results of the election clearly show that we are finally uniting Kaduna State and people are making choices based on the performance of elected officials.”
He said, “There are issues that came up and the electoral commission is working on them. Two LGAs are still contentious, the results have not been communicated to me. I have been told that in Kachia, one of the LGAs, the election is inconclusive because the machines did not function in many polling units. Soba is awaited, but so far I will say that the exercise has gone reasonably well.
“There is little we can do to avoid thugs snatching electoral machines, but you should know that these machines are programmed to be disconnected remotely by the electoral commission. The machine also provides its GPS location so you can target and go and recover it.”
