Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State has congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari on his re-election for a second term, saying the president has laid a foundation for development of new Nigeria.
Ganduje, who spoke with State House correspondents on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa after a congratulatory visit to President Buhari, described the president as the most honest man in Nigeria.
President Buhari was at the early hours of Wednesday declared winner of 2019 presidential elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that president Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was on Wednesday declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), having polled 15,191,847 votes, winning in 19 states.
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President Buhari defeated 71 other candidates including his closest contender, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 11, 255,978 votes and won 17 states and the FCT to emerge second.
The Kano state governor said that a delegation from Kano state would still visit the president to felicitate with him.
“First of all, we have to thank All Mighty God. I am here in order to express my happiness and congratulate the President personally and also to seize the opportunity to thank all Nigerians for voting him for the second time.
“Most Nigerians voted for the most honest person in Nigeria because he laid the foundation for the development of new Nigeria and a man who loves Nigeria more than himself.
“A man who believes in free and fair election.
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“I think we are forging ahead in terms of getting things right in Nigeria, so I am here just to congratulate him personally before we come as a group from Kano state to congratulate him.’’
On allegations that Kano state figures were inflated, Ganduje said that those peddling such rumours were not serious people.
He said such people were anti-democratic as INEC creditably acquitted itself in the conduct of the election in spite of the low turnout of voters.
The governor said that Kano State aspired to give president Buhari more votes than was recorded, but however, added that he was grateful to God that the election was free and fair.
“So, those who are saying that we could not have got that much I think they are ignorant of the politics of Kano state.
“If it is because of the low turnout, let’s wait for the governorship election. My chances are very high.
“You can see, the beginning of it is the presidential election. We got Mr. President; we gave the highest number of votes.
“All the three Senators are back, they won the elections; 24 House of Representatives members out of 24; they have succeeded. What else are you expecting?
“That is the foundation and another thing is that Mr. President has done a lot of work for Nigeria, he has done a lot of work in Kano state and we as government have done a lot of work, a lot for the people of Kano State.
“If there is any negative reaction, we could have seen it from this first election. So that is why I am saying we are heading for a huge success in Kano State come the governorship election and that of the state House of Assembly,’’ he said.
President Buhari garnered the highest number of votes, 1,464,768 votes from Kano State. (NAN)
