Silent Support of Igbos Gave Buhari Victory - Shettima

Kashim Shettima,

Kashim Shettima, the governor of Borno State has on Wednesday stated that the contributions of the Igbo people to Buhari's campaign was as impressive as in other parts of Nigeria.

He said that the Igbos were 'silent forces' behind Buhari, saying that their support worked against the production of 'outrageous' votes from the South-East as was the case for PDP in 2011.

He said that this was what made the votes gathered from other parts of the country count at all.

His words, documented by the PUNCH: “Buhari’s election was a pan-Nigerian movement. I have heard some political analysts making some wrong conclusions that‎ the Ibos in the South-East didn’t contribute significantly to Buhari’s victory; but I think they are missing the point because there are two key contributions to winning elections.

“One is to give votes and the other is to prevent opponent from rigging and both have equal relevance. In the 2011 elections, the PDP got a combined figure of about seven million votes in the South-East. Some of these states recorded or so they claimed, having almost 100 per cent voter turn out.

“But in 2015, Ibos in the South-East, especially our leaders in the APC, stood very firm, some of them put their lives on the line, resisted all kinds of humiliation and at the end, they prevented another seven million votes from coming out.

“In Ebonyi, the PDP got less than 300,000 votes; in Abia, the PDP got less than 400,000; even in Enugu, the PDP got about 600,000 votes; in Imo also, the PDP got less than 600,000. All these were against the big numbers of 2011.

“We all saw what happened in Rivers. If that was repeated in the South-East, it would have been a major source of concern for all Nigerians, but the Ibos did very well by resisting every step against Buhari. So, they are heroes as far as I am concerned.”