By Johnbosco Agbakwuru & Elizabeth Osayande, LAGOS

Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State said yesterday that some elements in the Presidency were working assiduously to ensure the failure of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in ths month’s presidential elections.

He also said the same forces were responsible for the current crisis created by the petrol subsidy, which is making the country waste over N6 trillion annually.

But the Federal Government in a swift reaction yesterday, said it is not aware of any element working against the ruling party, insisting that President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to ensuring that the forthcoming elections are free, fair and credible and wil not favour any presidential candidate.

But speaking in an interview on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, Governor el-Rufai said most of those working against APC’s chances in the presidential election are not even members of the party.

He said they are embittered because their preferred candidate didn’t win the party’s presidential ticket.

The governor said: “Nigerians should stick with the APC because they should see what we have been able to achieve in the last eight years in very difficult circumstances.

'We were sabotaged on subsidy’

“This fuel subsidy requires a national conversation. It is not a partisan thing, it has been going on for years, we tried to solve it under the Buhari administration but we were sabotaged and we are where we are.

“To be honest, we have had the conversation at the level of the National Economic Council, NEC, chaired by the vice president and we all agreed it should go, it was Buhari himself that took the decision that this subsidy will hurt the poor and he won’t do it.

“That is why our presidential candidate in the same party is saying he will remove it. It is not a party position but the personal position of the president.

VANGUARD