El-Jibrin, a former lawmaker who represented Kano South senatorial district and one–time council chairman, hinged his optimism on the grounds that the majority leader was leading his closet opponent, Air Commodore Salisu Yishau (retd), with over 4,000 votes in the first leg of their contest on February 25th.
Speaking to newsmen on Wednesday in Kano, El-Jibrin explained that Doguwa and the APC have been very strong in the constituency, adding that the NNPP candidate lacked the capacity, followership and public support to upstage the incumbent at the poll as of today.
“Don’t forget that Alhassan has been contesting and this is not the first time he is winning this election nor is this the first time that he is contesting in a supplementary election in the constituency” he stated.
“And this particular re-run election, if you should look, look at it well enough you will see that Alhassan has a clear advantage over his opponent.
“In the last election, Alhassan was leading his NNPP opponent with 4,900 votes, and on Saturday, the re-run election is scheduled to take place in 13 polling units which have only about 7000 persons who had collected their voter’s cards.
“In any matter in Nigeria, only about 50 per cent or less of those who collected their cards actually come out to vote. When you do these mathematics, we expect that the actual voters on that day would be far less than the over 7000 people who collected their PVCs.That again means that even if all the voters should vote for his opponent, which is not the case, he would still win the elections.
“But a very interesting point is that one-on-one, Alhassan is stronger than his opponent in the area of the 13 polling units that were cancelled. These are his strongholds. The majority of the places where he is weak have been concluded and announced. They belong to him and he belongs to them and I am sure that even in the re-run election, they would root for Alhassan.”
He explained that most of the allegations against the majority leader in recent days were triggered by the desperation of his opponents to dislodge him from his seat at all costs.
