Buhari’ll get 2.5m votes from Katsina – Masari

Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina state said yesterday that President Muhammadu Buhari will get nothing less than 2.5 million votes from the state in the 2019 presidential elections.
Masari said this while fielding questions from State House correspondents after a meeting with the President at the State House in Abuja.
“The people of Katsina are 100 per cent behind President Buhari and they will continue to support him even after the elections of 2019.
We expect based on figures coming out of the registered voters to give him nothing less than 70 to 80 per cent.
“We don’t have the figures now because they have completed additional registration, we are not talking about the last exercise that led to the election of 2015 and in 2015 he got almost 1.5 million votes from Katsina state, so we expect by 2019 we will be able to give him additional one million making it not less than 2.5 million votes,” he said.
Reacting to the Electoral Offences Commission Bill 2018 approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday, Masari said the bill would help in sanitising electoral system in the country.
“If I could remember during the Uwais committee, we were heading some subcommittees of former legislators, former and serving governors and we made presentation and part of our recommendations was that apart from the independence of the electoral body, to establish this tribunal will help in sanitising the electoral process.
“The legal system as at today is prolonged and takes time and cases are decided when you have even forgotten about your offence and I think, this will help to sanitise and make the elections more credible,” he said.
On direct and indirect primaries adopted by the All Progressives Congress (APC), Masari said: “It is not a hot cake.
First of all, let me say from all the states that we have read and heard, Lagos, Kano and Niger are the only states that have opted for direct primaries in a country of 36 states plus FCT.
“I think it shouldn’t be contentious issue.
Infact the constitution of the party is very clear, there is nothing contentious in this.
The constitution of the party recognises direct, consensus and indirect primaries, so which ever method is adopted, nobody is breaching the constitution of the party, so what is the big deal about it.”