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Thursday 2 April 2015

Igbos Played Significant Role In Buhari’s Victory – Gov. Shettima of Borno

SHETIMMA

Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima has dispelled insinuation in certain quarters that the victory of the president-elect, Gen Muhammadu Buhari, was made possible by four geopolitical zones, excluding the south-east and the south-south.
According to him, the Ibos of the South-east ge-opolitical zone were silent forces that played significant roles in the victory of Buhari of the APC at the just concluded presidential elections.
The governor stated this, while addressing supporters after his return from Abuja where he went on Tuesday night to join other leaders of the APC ahead of Buhari’s declaration as President elect.
He noted that leaders of the APC in the south-east stood their ground in stopping the PDP from coming out with outrageous figures as votes from the zone the way it happened in 2011.
Shettima argued that it was for this singular act that votes garnered by Buhari in other geopolitical zones were enough to return him as president-elect.
He said, “Buhari’s election was an pan-Nigerian movement. I have heard some political analysts making some wrong conclusions that the Ibos in the South-east didn’t contribute significantly to Buhari’s victory, but I think they are missing the point because there are two key contributions to winning elections.
“One is to gives votes and the other is to prevent opponent from rigging and both have equal relevance. In the 2011 elections, the PDP got a combined figure of about seven million votes in the southeast, some of these states recorded or so they claimed, having almost 100 per cent voter turn out.
“But in 2015, Ibos in the southeast, especially our leaders in the APC stood very firm, some of them put their lives on the line, resisted all kinds of humiliation and at the end, they prevented another seven million votes from coming out”.
Using the votes from Rivers State as an instance, he said, “In Ebonyi the PDP got less than 300,000 votes, in Abia, the PDP got less than 400,000, even in Enugu the PDP got about 600,000 votes, in Imo also the PDP got less than 600,000 all these were against the big numbers of 2011.
“We all saw what happened in Rivers, if that was repeated in the southeast it would have been a major source of concern for all Nigerians but the Ibos did very well by resisting every step against Buhari so they are heroes as far as I am concerned. This is also the case in some parts of the south-south.
“In Bayelsa, the PDP could have recorded 600,000 or so votes but they got less than 400,000 because of the efforts of our men in Bayelsa who stood firm. In Edo State, Buhari wasn’t far from President Goodluck Jonathan in terms of votes”.

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