PDP’s money can’t sway Southern Kaduna people from voting El-Rufai – Stakeholder A leading stakeholder in the All Progressive Congress in Kaduna State has said that no politician can buy the people of the state with money in the coming general election. This was the view of Pastor Haruna Gaga, an indigene of Southern Kaduna who decamped recently from the PDP to the APC. Gaga who justified his switch of political party on his conviction that the APC governorship candidate, Mallam El-Rufai, is the toast of the majority of the people in the state said during an interview in the course of a visit to the El-Rufai Campaign headquarters in Kaduna that people have become wiser and they will not allow any politician to buy their votes and then dump them. Reacting to a question about the allegation that PDP is ready to induce voters with money in the general election, Gaga said any politician that plans such will be in for a shock, adding that the people of especially Southern Kaduna areas have made up their mind never to be bought. “I want you to know that Southern Kaduna people are tired of playing chickens where you throw the grain at them and when they come closer you carry them and slaughter them,” he said. He buttressed his point by noting that, “the only time South Kaduna people saw the light was when (Patrick) Yakowa came in as the governor, a man who was their son. The only other person who can beat his chest today that he has done anything to Southern Kaduna is Bantex (Bala Barnabas, the APC deputy governorship candidate). He built a secretariat in his own hometown in his local government area and zone. So Southern Kaduna people should not be taken for granted by anybody that will want to use money to induce them. I am from Southern Kaduna. I am Kagoma by tribe. I am a clergyman. I am telling you this and I will want you to call me after this election when it would have been proved to you that Southern Kaduna people could not be bought.” Gaga who had been a Senior Special Assistant to different PDP governors in the state before he decamped in September 2014 said the party in power may think of spending money, but that would be to no avail. “The present government in the state may think that they will use money; their money will be eaten but they will never get the vote they are thinking of.” On the opinion held in some quarters that some in Southern Kaduna had been induced with money to sell out their votes in the past, and that they might be induced to repeat the same, Gaga said such an opinion is total misconception. “Frankly I am opposed to this opinion,” he stated. While he didn’t disagree that the PDP in the state may have its game plan, he was convinced that the will of the people to have a change in the state would be a counter measure to whatever negative plan there may be. “The present government may have their own game plan but those of us in the APC are ready to obey the law of the land and play politics according to the rule by INEC, according to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the bye laws guiding electoral activities. Accordingly, all votes will be cast, counted, and announced on the spot in every polling unit, in every ward, and in every local government area. Picking boxes to somewhere else will be resisted. I repeat, it will be resisted to the highest level. As long as we work within the constitution of Nigeria, we will not allow anybody to play on us.” Gaga was so optimistic about the desire of the people of Kaduna State to throw out the present PDP government that he did not believe the ruling party would be able to rig election with the consequence that the matter would end up in a court of law. Asked if the APC foresees the possibility of the party going to court to challenge the result of an election rigged by the PDP, Gaga said, “Frankly, we are not even thinking of court, because if this election is executed and results are counted at the polling units, at ward levels, at local government levels, at zonal as well as state and federal level, we don’t need to go to court. This is because the facts will be there. We will resist anything going out of the premises of the election. I don’t pray that we go to court because El-Rufai is going to be the next governor due to the evidences that we can all see. As far as Southern Kaduna is concerned, since the present PDP government has refused to follow in the footsteps of late Sir Patrick Yakowa, El-Rufai will fulfill it and we will vote him to so do. This is our prayer.”
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 14:56:15 +0000
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