GOVERNOR Kashim Shettima of Borno State has said that the Igbo from the South-East geo-political zone in the country is the “silent forces” that played a significant role in victory of the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, at last presidential polls.

Shettima, who spoke in Maiduguri while addressing All Progressives Congress (APC) supporters at the Government House after his return from Abuja in the evening for Buhari’s presidential acceptance speech, also said that contrary to some claims that Buhari was elected by four geo-political zones without the South-East and the South-South, leaders and supporters of the APC in the South-East stood very firm to stop the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate from coming out with massive votes as the case was in 2011.

He said it was for that singular act that the votes polled by Buhari in other geo-political zones were enough to return him as President-elect for the country.

His words: “Buhari’s election was a pan-Nigerian movement. I have heard some political analysts making some wrong conclusions that the Igbo in the South-East did not contribute significantly to Buhari’s victory but I think they are missing the point; because there are two key contributing factors to winning elections.

“One is to give votes and the other is to prevent opponents from rigging and both have equal relevance. In the 2011 elections, the PDP got a combined figure of about seven million votes in the South-East, some of these states recorded or so they claimed, having almost 100 per cent voters’ turnout.

“But in 2015, Igbo in the South-East, especially our leaders in the APC, stood very firm, some of them put their lives on the line, resisted all kinds of humiliation and at the end, they prevented another seven million votes from coming out.

“We all saw what happened in Rivers, if that was repeated in South-East, it would have been a major source of concern for all Nigerians but the Igbo did very well by resisting every step against Buhari; so they are heroes as far as I am concerned.”