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Senator-elect, Danladi Sankara has faulted the
allegation of rigging levelled against him by his opponent, Ibrahim
Saminu Turaki, of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

Mr Sankara, who was the immediate past national
vice-chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party for the North-West zone
described the allegation as not only frivolous, but lacking any
justifiable basis. He noted that his victory was a reflection of the
wishes and aspirations of the people of his senatorial district.

“You could remember that I told you that I am in
the race to win, and by the special grace of God through the power of
the people, that has come to be, as I won the election convincingly
clearly without any ambiguity. Personally, I see my victory as a
challenge, an enormous one for that matter, bearing in mind that I have
to start all over again to provide credible and rewarding
representation for the people of the 12 local government areas that
constitute the Jigawa North-West senatorial constituency in the
National Assembly. This is because in the past 12 years since the
inception of this democratic dispensation, my constituency has nothing
to show in terms of quality representation.”

Continuing, he noted: “My mission is to change the
trend for the better, so that my people can get a credible voice in the
National Assembly to attract meaningful development to the entire
constituency. Those who occupied the Senate seat in the past only ended
up representing their personal interests without any consideration for
the people they were supposed to represent. The situation was so bad
that they do not even visit the areas as soon as they got people
mandate, talk less of addressing the issues affecting them. That is
exactly what I have come to change. I believe that majority of the
electorate voted for me because they were convinced by my track record.
I will provide the much desired credible representation on their behalf.

Baseless allegations

Mr Sankara said “The allegation of rigging made by
Ibrahim Saminu Turaki and his group is frivolous, unfounded and it
lacked basis in truth and reality. In fact, if there was any incident
of rigging, it was the Saminu Turaki group who attempted to perpetrate
such evil, but the people, the voters were very vigilant and refused to
allow them to manipulate the process. That is why they lost the
election and are now shedding crocodile tears.

On the allegation that he rigged at last two
local government areas of his district whose results came last, he
said: “That again has proved that Saminu Turaki and his groups of
opposition allies have no case. We have 12 local government areas in
Jigawa North-west Senatorial constituency. I won clearly in 10 local
government areas with half of the total votes cast in the remaining two
local government areas. Then how come votes of only two local
governments can supersede those of 10 other local governments. In fact,
there is no sense in the allegation. My understanding of this issue is
that they have no case and have, therefore, chosen to resort to
frivolities and unnecessary confusion to deceive themselves and their
followers.

On the threats by Mr. Turaki to challenge his
victory at the court, he said: “The truth is that you cannot beat
somebody up, hands down, and then turn round to stop him from crying.
They are free to go to court; let us meet at the temple of justice,
which is the court, even though it is clear that their action if ever
taken would end up as a waste of time and an abuse of judicial process.
If you think you can deceive yourself, you cannot stampede the
honourable judges to join in the deceit by presenting a frivolous
case.”