Leon Usigbe
The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, took his campaign to Kano on Thursday, promising the people that he will restore the state to its status as the country’s commercial nerve centre if elected president.
Addressing the enthusiastic crowd at Kofar Mata Stadium in the state capital, he expressed delight that such a huge number of people are still supporting the main opposition party.
The former vice president restated his plan to open the nation’s land borders as he pledged to bring back security to enable the people to do their business without fear.
He also said that he will prioritize agriculture and provide the road infrastructure to link Kano to neighbouring states.
Atiku said: “The People of Kano, we are pleased to meet with you today and we cannot believe that you are so many and in thousands supporting PDP.
“We have known that Kano is PDP. We thank you for coming out in your numbers to support us.
“Kano has always been the centre of commerce in Nigeria. When PDP returns to power, we will make sure that Kano becomes a leading commercial centre in the country.
“We shall open the borders. We shall also ensure that Kano state is secured so that you can do your business without fear.
“The people of Kano are also known for farming. So, if you elect me, I will support the agricultural sector and improve the business activities of the people. We will make Agriculture a priority.
“We shall provide road infrastructure that will link Kano to all the neighbouring states. We will make sure that university lecturers are paid so that our children will continue to go to school.
“I have also pledged to set some funds aside for youths and women to receive loans to set up their small and medium business enterprise for self-employment.”
PDP National Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, while addressing the rally, lamented the poor handling of the Nigerian economy by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), saying that the PDP did not tell the government to change currency, which is currently complicating the condition of many citizens.
He said: “Since that party came, they have not thought of anything that will benefit the poor. They always formulate laws that will suffer the people. Today we have hunger, and insecurity, people are being killed, and there is no petrol anywhere.
“They brought another problem, they changed the currency. We did not tell them to change the currency but they did it themselves. They have not thought about how it will affect the poor. But we the PDP will come to rescue Nigeria.”
In his remark, the Director-General of the PDP Presidential Candidate Council and governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, urged the supporters to reject APC, whose leaders he accused of stashing away money that should have been used to provide security to buy votes.
Tambuwal stated: “Reject those people (APC). Don’t be deceived by their money. It is the money they are supposed to use to provide security that they stashed. They want to use it to buy votes.
“You can see the level of in-fighting in APC. They have plans to hack the INEC server. They want to make Kano and indeed, North-West the dumping ground of their illicit money. Take their money and reject them.”
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