Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has revealed that it was President Muhammadu Buhari who forced him to contest for the governorship of the state.
El-Rufai made the disclosure on Thursday, April 7, 2016, while speaking at the closing ceremony of the two-day Kaduna Investment Forum, ThisDay reports.
“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,” the governor said.
“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 added.
A similar comment had earlier been made by Kaduna Senator, Shehu Sani who said that he stepped down for El-Rufai because the latter was Buhari’s choice for governor of the state.
“…I wanted to contest for the governorship and I opened offices in Zaria, Kaduna and Kafanchan, and later there was pressure on me that I should step down. Politicians came to meet me; that I should step down and allow El-Rufai to contest because they said he was the favourite of the president,” Sani said on Friday, August 21, 2015, during an interview with Leadership.
Meanwhile, the Senator recently warned El-Rufai to stop eyeing Buhari’s seat and focus on ruling Kaduna.
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