Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has disclosed that that the hunt has begun to fish out the harbinger of fake news that he was involved in an accident that claimed his driver’s life and left him in coma.
El-Rufai
who said he was in the presidential villa to inform President Muhammadu
Buhari that he was never involved in an accident nor was he in coma,
while fielding questions from State House Correspondents, said: “I came
to see Mr. President because immediately after my re-election I took a
break. I came back to report to him that I was not involved in an
accident. I’m alive, I am not in coma and also to discuss other issues
related to my state.”
Asked what he has to say to those behind
the rumour, he said, “my advice to everyone in Nigeria is to avoid
forwarding stories that have not been verified. Social media provides
platform for disseminating information but it is also a platform for
dissemination of lies and hatred. We should be very careful that we
don’t use this platform to advance the cause of the enemies of this
country.”
Reacting to claims by the presidential candidate of
People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar that he won Kaduna
State, El-Rufai said, “Well, I heard about that. Initially, I thought it
was a joke but when I checked I saw clearly that he said he won Kaduna.
It must be in his dreams. Let me say this without any fear of
contradiction, since President Buhari started contesting for the
presidency since 2003, he has never lost Kaduna. So, PDP has never won
elections in Kaduna from 2003, even with a sitting governor in 2003,
2007, 2011 and 2015. It has never happened. I don’t know what will
happen that Atiku will win Kaduna in these elections this time. He lost
Kaduna; he lost very badly, even though about 100,000 votes he claimed
to have got were added because elections were conducted without card
reader in some parts of the state, that’s how he even got up to the
400,000.
“He has lost Kaduna, he will always lose Kaduna, he will
lose Kaduna 10 more times because he has never won Kaduna in any
presidential elections.”
When reminded that the results were
from INEC server, the governor said, “well, I don’t know about INEC
server, it must be Atiku’s server. I don’t know about INEC server, we
don’t know how they had access to it, they will tell us during the
tribunal proceedings what is this server and how they got access to it
and how they got their numbers. You do not go to court in an election
petition by quoting INEC server or any other server. Anyone can create a
server, I can go and buy it, it is a piece of equipment and call it
INEC server. But that does not mean that it amounts to anything, we are
guided by the electoral act and the evidence act and other enabling
legislation and he has to prove his case. But anyone can make claims; we
live in the age of fake news and fake claims. Anyone can make claims
but you have to prove it.”
The electoral body had announced
Buhari as winner of the election in Kaduna State, having polled 993,482
to defeat PDP’s Atiku, who polled 613,318.
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