From Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi
Hundreds of All Progressives Congress (APC) supporters on Monday gathered for a mass rally to drum up votes for the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his running mate and Kebbi State gubernatorial candidate, Dr Nasir Idris.
The rally, organised by Tinubu Integrity Group, took off from Haliru Abdu Stadium to major streets and terminated at the APC campaign office in Birnin Kebbi.
The organisers of the event drew participants from different youth, women and ethnic groups.
Speaking at the terminating point, the rally’s coordinator, Abubakar Sadiq-Fakai, explained that the event was aimed at rallying voters for the APC in the forthcoming general elections.
Fakai recalled that a similar event took place prior to the 2015 general elections and that it had yielded positive results, stressing the need to replicate the success in 2023.
According to him, “APC had done a lot of good things to Nigeria both at the state and federal levels including creating job opportunities through different intervention programmes.”
In his speech, Alhaji Nura Kangiwa, Coordinator, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) in Kebbi State, urged the people of the state to come out en-mass to vote for APC to reciprocate many investment empowerments the federal government under APC has been giving to the people of the state.
He said the crowd that participated in the rally had demonstrated the acceptability of the party’s candidates at both state and federal levels.
Mallam Yahaya Sarki, Media Adviser to Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, urged people to massively vote for APC as a show of appreciation for the dividends of democracy being enjoyed across the state.
Sarki, who is also the Publicity Chairman, APC Presidential Campaign Council in the state, noted with satisfaction that the Bagudu administration had a track record of prudent management of the state resources.
He observed that support for Tinubu for president and Dr Nasiru Idris for Kebbi was support for justice, peace and unity of the nation at large and Kebbi in particular.
Alhaji Nasiru Magaji, the Acting Chairman, APC Youths Kebbi State, recalled that in 2015, North West had enjoyed the support of the South West to produce Muhammadu Buhari as president, as he called on the North West to reciprocate the gesture for Tinubu, the candidate from the South West, in 2023.
Magaji added that support for APC was support for the continuation of oil exploration in the North, noting that the Buhari administration was the first to explore and commence oil drilling in Northern Nigeria.