Nasir El-Rufai, governor of Kaduna State Governor and a leading member of the ruling All Progressives Congress, has expressed surprise at the defeat of his party in the gubernatorial election held in Edo State over the weekend.
“We (APC) would have loved to win and quite frankly, I was optimistic up to three weeks ago; the polls indicated that we were going to win. I don’t know what happened in the last three weeks of the campaign.
El-Rufai spoke Monday morning on Channels Television programme.
APC had gone into the polls fully confident of victory, as the governor said that an opinion poll conducted showed that the party’ candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, was set to win.
The Independent National Electoral Commission on Sunday declared governor Godwin Obaseki, of the People’s Democratic Party, winner of the election. Obaseki had 307,955 votes to defeat Ize-Iyamu, who had t 223,619 votes.
El-Rufai said, “As you know, a large number of voters make up their minds in the last two weeks of the election. Many voters decide no matter what happens, this is how I am voting but most people want to wait and make up their minds in the last two weeks.
“Three weeks ago, the polls clearly showed that APC was going to win but the result came out differently from what we expected.
“Obaseki has won, that’s it. You can’t go into an election without the possibility of losing.”
“The election was reasonably decent. We were all worried about violence but there was very little violence or none at all.”
Ize-Iyamu conceded defeat late Sunday and went ahead to congratulate Obaseki.
However, raised the possibility of challenging the results of the electin when he said that he “studying the results along with other party members and will announce the next line of action soon”.
He said from his verifiable Twitter handle said “I hereby thank and appreciate my teeming supporters, who have had to endure many evils including being prevented from exercising their franchise, for their support and determination during the election process. “I assure you all that I am studying the results along with other party members and will announce the next line of action soon. God bless you all”, he said.
Meanwhile President Muhammadu Buhari has commended the election process, stating that he was committed to free and fair elections. He has also congratulated Obaseki.
