Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has been called out by the Peoples Democratic Party in the state.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accused El-Rufai of using free food and transport incentives to buy votes.
The claim comes after the Kaduna state government had announced the provision of free food, free transport, and medical services as part of measures to cushion the effect of the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
In a statement on Wednesday, the PDP State Secretary, Ibrahim Wusono, said such a gesture by the El-Rufai government is a tactic for vote-buying ahead of the 2023 general election.
Wusono added that the move was part of the deceit employed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) government for the past seven years, urging the residents to resist the gesture.
He said, “They brought a plan by transporting people from Kaduna to Zaria metropolitan free of charge. I want to draw the attention of Kaduna citizens that it’s part of the deceit which has always been part of the APC government for the past seven years.
“People should understand or remember that it’s the APC government that sacked more than 62,000 workers including teachers in the state.
“It’s the APC government that demolished houses, and market stalls and it is under the APC administration that people are not secure in Kaduna State; look at what is happening in Birnin-Gwari, Giwa, Chikun, and Kajuru? The entire is not secured. What causes this? It’s because of the poor leadership of the APC government.
“We are appealing to the people of Kaduna to resist the tactics that is being currently introduced by the APC government by distributing food items to them just because they have failed.
“It’s a deception. They govern the state for more than sevens year, have they provided free transport to citizens of the state? They didn’t. It’s because of the election. It’s also vote-buying.”
Wusono said there was no rift in the party in the state, as according to him, all the party stalwarts were now united to unseat the APC government.
He added: “There is no crisis in PDP in the state. Is there a crisis? Look when we conducted our rally yesterday, all the party top-notch were there; former Vice President Namadi Sambo was there; former governors Ahmed Makarfi, amongst others party stalwarts were there.”