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Okwe Obi, Abuja
A 26-year-old member representing Talata /Mafara constituency, Zamfara State House of Assembly, on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Hon Shamsudeen Hassan, has said he won the election even without voting himself.
Hassan, who spoke yesterday at a-one post-election retreat in Abuja, organised by Young Aspirants Leadership Fellowship, (YALF), alleged that agents of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the state ambushed different polling units, threatening to deal with any voter who wanted to vote for any other party, stressing that his stiff residence made thugs to seize his voter’s card and disenfranchised him.
He said: “In my state a lot of people know that election was not conducted and that was why we went to court and our stolen mandate was recovered. If you are at the polling units and not ready to vote for the ruling party (APC) you will be harassed on the spot; so that was why I didn’t vote for myself or my party. But even though I was not allowed to vote, I won.”
Aside advising young Nigerians not to give up or cave in to the antics of influential politicians by selling their mandates, he claimed to have rejected N10 million and cars to drop out of the race.
“Young aspirants should never give up, because, just like me, If I had given up I would not have been what I am today. They will be giving you some offers to destroy you politically that was why I rejected the N10 million and cars offers,” he said.
Earlier, the Executive Director of YALF, Kingsley Bangwell, explained that the retreat was to give candidates the opportunity to reel out their experiences in the 2019 polls, and to further coach them on how to weather the political storm in subsequent elections.
Bangwell, who narrated how vote-buying, thuggery, ballot-box snatching, marred the civil exercise, promised to relay the findings and suggestions to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for implementation.
He, however, urged the over twenty-four state elective representatives, who benefitted from his tutelage not to disappoint the electorate, noting that they should thrive to deliver the dividends of democracy by attracting meaningful projects to their constituencies.
