Governor of Jigawa state, Muhammad Badaru has stated that he did not “connive” with his Ekiti counterpart, Kayode Fayemi on the outcome of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary in the state.
Baduru, who is the chairman of the primary election committee, said this on Friday during an interview on Channels Television.
A former secretary to the Ekiti state government (SSG), Biodun Oyebanji on Thursday won the APC primary election, having polled 101,703 votes.
Oyebanji’s closest challengers, Ojo Kayode, Opeyemi Bamidele, and Dayo Adeyeye, polled 767, 760 and 691 votes, respectively.
Prior to the election, seven governorship aspirants had withdrawn from the process, alleging that the primary election committee is made up of Fayemi’s loyalists.
Asked to react to allegations that the primary election was rigged, the Jigawa governor said he can never be influenced to accept results that are not genuine.
“I heard a lot of allegations. That will always come in politics because people will allege different things, but all the aspirants know that nobody in this country will make me write a result that is not genuine,” he said.
“I can never sit down and write results. Nobody can push me to do that. I can’t. Let them come and challenge that we wrote the result and the election did not happen.
“Above all, right in the heart, they (referring to the seven aspirants who withdrew) know I didn’t connive with anybody to shortchange them.”
Asked if he connived with Fayemi, Baduru said the Ekiti governor will not ask him to do the wrong thing.
“No. Ask Fayemi. Even Fayemi will not ask me to do the wrong thing. He will not. He knows I will not do it,” he said.
The Jigawa governor also said the primary election was conducted in a free and fair manner, adding that he has video evidence showing party members voting during the process.
“Every ward of the 166 that election took place, it was done freely and fairly and if things were done badly, it could have been a problem and it could have been the same with 11 wards that were disrupted,” he added.
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