The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has expressed shock over the outcome of the Edo State governorship election won by the incumbent and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Governor Godwin Obaseki.
El-Rufai, a member of the All Progressives Congress, whose party’s candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, came second in the election, spoke on Channels Television, Monday.
The Independent National Electoral Commission on Sunday declared Obaseki winner of the poll conducted on Saturday.
In the announcement by INEC’s Returning Officer, Prof. Akpofure Rim-Rukeh, Obaseki polled 307,955 votes to defeat Ize-Iyamu, who scored 223,619 votes.
El-Rufai said opinion poll three weeks to the election showed that the APC was coasting to victory.
He said: “We would have loved to win and quite frankly, I was optimistic up to three weeks ago.
“The polls indicated that we were going to win.
“I don’t know what happened in the last three weeks of the campaign.
“As you know, a large number of voters make up their minds in the last two weeks of the election.
“Many voters decide no matter what happens: this is how I am voting, but most people want to wait and make up their minds in the last two weeks.
“Three weeks ago, the polls clearly showed that APC was going to win, but the result came out differently from what we expected.
“Obaseki has won, that’s it. You can’t go into an election without the possibility of losing.
“The election was reasonably decent. We were all worried about violence, but there was very little violence or none at all.” El-Rufai said.
