Kaduna State gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Change
(APC), Mallam Nasir el Rufai, yesterday accused the People’s Democratic
Party (PDP) in the state of allegedly engaging the Nigeria Army to scare
away APC voters from the polls and create room for rigging of the
governorship election in the state.
El-Rufai made the accusation in a statement signed by the Chairman, El
Rufai and Kaduna State APC Campaign Organisation, Ben Kure, in Kaduna
yesterday.
“The APC Kaduna State Campaign Council has been informed that soldiers
have received orders to engage in massive and sustained intimidation of
voters in the state. The objective is to scare people sufficiently to
deter them from voting, or, if they do, from defending their votes.
“The PDP hopes thereby to reduce turnout, suppress the votes that would
have been cast against it and thereby secure an illegitimate result.
There seems to be no limit to the PDP’s desperation.
“In executing this illegal and dangerous order, the soldiers have been
asked to concentrate their harassment, threats and scaremongering in
Zaria and Kaduna,” he said.
However, the PDP governorship candidate and governor of Kaduna State,
Muktar Yero has denied the accusation. According to him, El- Rufai, was
already preparing the grounds to justify the imminent defeat of the APC.
He therefore challenged El- Rufai to supply evidence on the allegation
as he could be talking from a state of “delirium from the sleepless
nights he is now suffering since he confirmed that Governor Yero will
beat him silly at the polls.”