Governor of Kaduna state, Nasir el-Rufai, on Thursday said it was President Muhammadu Buhari who forced him to contest last year's governorship election.
El-Rufai and Buhari
According to him, without the encouragement he received from Buhari who was the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress ( APC ), he wouldn’t have been governor of Kaduna state.
The outspoken government who spoke at the event held at the Umaru Musa Yar’adua Indoor Sports Hall, Murtala Square, Kaduna, said he would have lost the election if not for the card reader introduced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), adding that without the card reader, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) would have robbed him of victory at the polls.
"It was President Muhammadu Buhari that forced me to contest for the governorship race of Kaduna State in revenge for persuading him to run the presidential race.
"If he had not asked me to run for the governorship, I wouldn’t have stood before you today as the governor of Kaduna State.
"It is the Buhari phenomenon that had swept away the PDP. Buhari is a man of integrity, a Nigerian leader whose name has not been found in the Panama documents," he said.