Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai on Monday said the last three weeks of campaigns proved decisive in the Edo governorship election which his party, the All Progressives Congress, lost to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
El-Rufai stated this during his appearance on Channels TV, saying polls conducted three weeks ago had shown the APC candidate Osagie Ize-Iyamu was in the lead.
“We (APC) 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,” the governor said.
“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.”
In the week leading to Election Day, a national leader of the APC Bola Tinubu made a TV broadcast admonishing Edo people to “reject” Obaseki, a move many say was ill-advised.
However, El-Rufai further said the election was “reasonably decent”, adding “We were all worried about violence but there was very little violence or none at all.”
He also stressed the resolve of President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure elections are free and fair.
