The Katsina State All Progressives Congress (APC) Campaign Council says it is working towards securing almost 3 million votes for President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential election on February 16.
Briefing the press at the weekend on the level of preparedness for the President’s Katsina campaign grand rally slated for Thursday, Chairman of the Katsina Campaign Council, Dr Mustapha Muhammad Inuwa, described the targeted votes as critical to ensuring Buhari’s victory at the polls.
According to Inuwa, “this will be the last campaign programme for the President and from here he will move to Daura and wait for the election day to cast his vote.
“We are making arrangements to ensure we have a large turnout of Katsina people and from outside. We are working with various associations and groups to have an unprecedented turn out for the presidential rally.
“This is an APC state and Mr President’s state and that is why we have to ensure that we bring a large number of people to receive him at the Muhammadu Dikko stadium on Thursday.
“When he comes, he will visit the Emir of Katsina first. So far, Katsina has about 3.2 million people who have collected the PVC. We are working towards getting about 80 percent of these people to actually come out and vote because we really need the votes.
“We are confident that APC will win the election… We want to ensure that out of the about three million votes expected, they give Mr President at least 2.8 million votes and nothing less. We are working round the clock with various stakeholders in all the local government areas.
“The President needs the votes of Katsina and if Katsina gives him more votes, it will help in getting the cumulative votes which will eventually translate to the President winning the election at the the end of the day.
“In 2015, we had less than the current number of registered voters, about 2.8 million, out of which we gave the President 1.3 million votes, ” Inuwa said.
Inuwa also spoke on Governor Aminu Bello Masari’s re-election campaign tour of the 34 local government areas of the state noting that, “the reception was encouraging and we returned with high hopes that the people will re-elect all the APC candidates because they believe the government serves the interest of the people.
“We thank God for having hitch-free campaigns and the turnout we had. The people appreciated the government and promised to get the governor re-elected. If government did not do what the people expected we would not have gotten the massive turnout we had and we are grateful to our teeming supporters across the state.
“In all the local governments, we received decampees from various political parties, particularly the PDP. A number of them who held positions in the PDP and in government decided to join the APC because they appreciate what the government has been doing and they are hopeful that if the government continues, more good things will be done and that government will continue to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people.
“They listed some of the government projects that have benefited the people to include roads, hospitals, renovation and constructions of new schools, provision of water and employment as well as prompt payment of salaries, pension and gratuities,” the campaign chairman stated.