Niger State governor, Mohammed Bello, yesterday said those pushing the former vice president and presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in February 23 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to challenge the outcome of the election in court could be doing so to get money from him.
According to the governor, with his victory, people of the state should be assured that his administration was committed to providing dividends of democracy to them and to complete ongoing projects it started, adding that the new ones to be embarked on would be of benefit to the general public.
However, on Atiku’s claim that he won the election, Bello said: “It is not unusual, when you lose elections, you go to court for so many reasons. It could be that you think you won or it could be that someone is telling you that you have won or it could be that someone is telling you some miracles can happen. “It could also be that someone wants to get money off you. So there is no reason why after free and fair elections had been conducted and it is clear in the eyes of the world, one still believes that there are shoddy dealings.
“Anyone who feels dissatisfied is free to approach a court of law. It is a free world, everyone is entitled to his opinion. But honestly, from what I saw in Niger, this election has been the fairest election we have conducted so far.” Despite the declaration of election inconclusive in some states by Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the governor said that election was the fairest election so far conducted in the country. He said: “I think INEC did extremely well, the security agencies did very well as well. It is not unusual when you hold elections in a country like Nigeria where you have so many units to have issues with one or two units.”