ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed has said that by conducting local government election in the state after 13 years of such not happening, he has proven his critics wrong.
He said that it is an indication that his administration has kept his campaign promise of conducting free and fair local council polls.
Mohammed who stated this shortly after casting his vote at Yelwan Duguri Primary School Polling Unit in Alkaleri local government area of Bauchi state on Saturday, recalled that he earlier promised that his administration will have one of the most credible local government elections in the history of the state.
He said: “This is one of those things we are doing that we are very happy that at least, we are salvaging our campaign promises.
“Though, I can not say anything about the candidates, but we have seen how orderly people are and they look very happy to be allowed to exercise their franchise rights.
“I have promised the people of Bauchi and people of Nigeria that Bauchi state is going to have the most credible LG elections in the history of Bauchi state since 2008.It is not because we are better or we are geniuses, it is just because we have to go by the rule of law and fear of Allah.”
The governor also explained that his critics petitioned him due to the fact that they were not in close contact with the people of the state and advised them to always cross-check facts.
“They did not know that even before they made the petition, we had gone very far in terms of making preparations to reposition BASIEC and to do all the needfuls for us to hold the LG elections.
“I want to advise them to always cross-check and make sure they deepen stakeholding in a manner that whatever we are saying, we should have some stint of proves and reality,” he said.
The governor said that the voting exercises had been peaceful as he hasn’t heard of any incident of election malpractice from any of the LGAs.
He said that certainly, there is bound to be some delays in the movement of the electoral materials and electoral officers, “but so far, there is no any incident that I have heard.”
According to him: “That is why I stayed back in Bauchi to be monitoring the movement, this is a local government election and certainly, INEC have served us with so much.” –
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