Oluwaseye Ogunsanya
Claim
Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje claimed that votes from one local government area in the state (Nasarawa Local Government) gave the All Progressives Congress (APC) more votes than the entire South-East geopolitical zone.
Verdict
Ganduje’s claim is false.
Full Text
Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje claimed that votes from one local government area in the state (Nasarawa Local Government) gave the All Progressives Congress (APC) more votes than the entire South-East geopolitical zone.
He added that Peter Obi’s emergence as the candidate of Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 presidential election is good news to the APC because it spells trouble for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He made the claim on Monday when he appeared as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
“What is our political investment in the South-East? The votes we got from Nasarawa Local Government in Kano Metropolitan Area was much higher than the total votes APC got in the entire five states of the South-East.
“So, you can see that if there is any problem politically in the South-East, it is the PDP that will suffer the brush. So, the emergence of Obi from the South-eastern part of this country I think it’s the votes of PDP that he will snatch away and is already snatching away.” He said in part.
Kano state has always been a force to reckon with in Nigeria’s political space reasons being that it has the highest number of local government areas in Nigeria (44) and it has the second highest number of registered voters ahead of Kaduna, Rivers, Katsina and Oyo states except Lagos.
Additionally, the North West state has always been at the forefront of political calculations and permutations of political parties as well as potential presidential aspirants and eventual candidates.
However with the battle for control between Governor Umar Ganduje (APC), ex-governors Rabiu Kwankwaso (NNPP) and Ibrahim Shekarau (PDP), it has been predicted that Kano votes which has hitherto been monopolized by President Muhammadu Buhari may be balkanized this time because he won’t be on the ballot.
Verification
Although Ganduje didn’t specify the election year he was referring to when he made the claim, for the purpose of verification, FactCheckElections will use the 2019 presidential election results as evidence.
According to the results of the 2019 presidential election, Kano recorded over one million votes (the highest) thereby giving the ruling APC victory in the state.
However, the breakdown of the presidential election result by LGAs shows that in Nassarawa local government, APC won by a landslide of 84,289 votes.
On the other hand, in the entire south east, the break down of the election result for the APC shows the following
Abia – 85,058 votes
Anambra – 33,298 votes
Ebonyi – 90,726 votes
Enugu – 54,423 votes
Imo – 140,463 votes
Total number of votes – 494,694 votes.
Conclusion
As a result of the foregoing, FactCheckElections can conclude that based on the 2019 presidential election result, Ganduje’s claim that Nasarawa Local Government of Kano state gave the All Progressives Congress (APC) more votes than the entire South-East geopolitical zone is false.