Ashiru, who expressed confidence in the judiciary, said he won’t leave any stone unturned to retrieve his mandate because “it’s the people’s mandate.”
The PUNCH reports that the state INEC Collation Officer, Prof. Lawal Suleiman Bilbis, had announced that the APC governorship candidate polled 730,002 votes against his closest rival, Ashiru, who scored 719,196 votes.
The Labour Party governorship candidate, Jonathan Asake, polled 58,283 to come third while the New Nigeria Peoples Party candidate, Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, came a distant fourth with 21,405 votes while rejected votes stood at 19,114.
The PDP governorship candidate while addressing a press conference in Kaduna, on Thursday, said he would fight to a logical conclusion, using legal means to recover the mandate.
Ashiru, however, appealed to the PDP supporters to remain calm, urging them not to take the law into their own hands.
He also noted that the state could not afford to miss peace at this critical period of the nation’s democratic journey.
He said, “I have the confidence that we will recover the mandate. The mandate is not mine. The mandate is for the good people of Kaduna State and I have the responsibility to make sure we recover it. We will recover the mandate for the people by the special grace of God.
“We have laid-down procedures and we have laws in the land on how to recover our mandate. Going to court is the second option we have here. The first one is to seek administrative intervention by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
“The second is going to the court. The first court has to do with the tribunal, the Appeal court and to Supreme Court. Let me assure you that we have confidence in the Nigerian judiciary. And it is the last hope of the common man.
“I don’t have any fear going to court because I have confidence in the legal institution, and they will do justice to the case by the special grace of God.
“I want to assure you that our people are law-abiding. They will never be part of disgruntled elements. We have processes that we will follow to retrieve our mandate.”
He added, “I want to assure that even if we are going on protest, it will be peaceful. I want to assure you that none of our members will be found wanting as long as keeping peace in Kaduna State. Kaduna State is fragile.
“The security situation is something that we are still battling in the state to get our two eyes closed while sleeping after years of the APC administration. We will not encourage any of our members to go and do what is not correct. Peace is something that we must cherish and make sure that the state remains in peace.”
