- Order is barbaric – PDP
Ahead of the Saturday rescheduled presidential and National Assembly elections, President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered security operatives to shoot on sight anyone involved in the motive to undermine the process.
President Buhari gave the order in his remarks at the meeting of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) national caucus meeting held at the party National Secretariat in Abuja.
He disclosed that adequate arrangements have been made for the security agents to enable them perform their statutory functions without hitches on Saturday and subsequent elections.
He said: “We have told our constituents to be patient and react in a very matured way by going peacefully and vote and depend on party representatives in the polling unit. I do not expect anybody to cause any disturbance. The security agencies have identified hot spot and flashpoints and should be prepared to move.
“We have made as much arrangement as possible for them as much as the country can afford. Anybody who decides to snatch ballot boxes or lead thugs to disturb the process, maybe that will be the last unlawful action you will take. We have directed the military and other security agents to be ruthless. We are not going to be blamed that we want to rig elections. I want Nigerians to be respected and let them vote whoever they want across the parties. I am not afraid of that. I went round the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) and I think I have enough support across the country to look out for me. So, I want to warn anybody who thinks he has enough influence in his locality to lead a body of thugs to snatch ballot boxes or disturb the voting system, he will do it at the expense of his own life.”
President Buhari restated his disaffection over the postponement of last Saturday’s election and vowed to investigate the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission after the general elections might have been concluded.
“INEC had all the time and all the resources they wanted and didn’t have to wait for only six hours to cancel the elections and tell us it was impossible. Definitely, the reason why such incompetence manifested has to be explained to the nation. After the elections, we have to know exactly what happened and who is responsible. Otherwise, our efforts to make sure that this system is acceptable would have been eroded. The constitution and the law protected INEC. But they must not take us for granted. If for example, the National Assembly refused to approve what they wanted, INEC would have had moral reasons why they couldn’t perform. If the time of four years of election was not constitutionally obeyed by the government, INEC would have a case. But we don’t understand the reason for this inefficiency and we have to go into details after the election to find out who is responsible.”
The APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, joined his counterpart in the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus, to demand the removal of INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu.
He equally said the Commission should be prepared to remove certain Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) whom he alleged have since compromised their office. Comrade Oshiomhole specifically claimed that the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini was working for the PDP.
The APC chairman further alleged that the leadership of INEC was working in league with certain individuals in the country to ensure that the elections were stalemated, precipitate constitutional crisis so that an Interim National Government could be foisted on the nation.
“Mr. President, I have no difficulty in seconding my colleague in the PDP, Secondus to demand the removal of INEC chairman. This INEC leadership is up for a game. There are elements that are anti-democratic who are working to ensure that the elections don’t hold so that they can push for an interim national government!
“Mr. President, I also believe that because you are the Chief of State, you are the President, you have dual responsibilities. One is to ensure that, any institution of State that has mediated, anybody that is involved in that act, particularly actions that will clearly weaken the fabric of our democracy, Mr. President, you have a duty to trigger the process that will compel everyone involved in all of these to account, we cannot be helpless because at the end of the day, all fingers will point at you even as innocent as you are.
“I want us to also use today to review what has happened in various States but not while media people are here. But on my part, when the going gets tough, that is when the tough gets going. I’m much more determined that our message to the Nigerian people, we must revive it and insist that these elections are conducted properly.
“Those INEC RECs that have been compromised we will press on INEC leadership that they do not have a right to impose a corrupt or compromised INEC RECs on us. When sufficient doubts have been raised on the characters, the integrity of a referee, no responsible match authority will impose that referees on the players.
“We don’t care where anybody is posted to because INEC has the discretion to move people around.”
The Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun and his Imo State counterpart, Rochas Okorocha were absent at the meeting.
In attendance were Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano), Simon Lalong (Plateau), Godwin Obaseki (Edo), Nasir el- Rufai (Kaduna), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo) Umar Jibrilla Bindow (Adamawa), Yahaya Bello (Kogi), Akinwunmi Ambode (Lagos), Tanko Al-Makura (Nasarawa), Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi) and Abubakar Sani Bello (Niger).
Others were Kashim Shettima (Borno), Mohammed Abubakar (Bauchi), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti) and Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara)
Other party chieftains sighted were Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, his counterpart in the Ministry of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed.
But reacting to the statement by the president on Monday, the PDP expressed concern that the call may be a ploy by the APC to shoot innocent Nigerians.
It also said President Buhari’s threat to the lives of Nigerians is an attempt to divert public attention from their closed session where details of their dastardly plot to truncate the nation’s democratic process will be perfected.
A statement by National Publicity Secretary and Director, Media & Publicity, PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, said: “We do hope that this call by President Buhari is not a camouflage for the fake soldiers mobilised by the APC to shoot at innocent Nigerians, snatch ballot boxes and execute their rigging plans on the election day. It is indeed a license to kill, which should not come from any leader of any civilised nation.
“The underlining fact to the above is that President Buhari and APC leaders, upon getting to their voting constituencies last Saturday, realised that there is a nationwide rejection of Buhari’s re-election bid, and this has thrown them into a panic mode.
“President Buhari must, however, bear in mind that his resort to threats and scaremongering will not deter Nigerians from coming out en-masse to vote him out of office on February 23.
“We are aware that President Buhari, who had earlier boasted that nobody can ‘unseat’ him, is bent on using every dictatorial and tyrannical act to truncate the process of a free, fair and credible election.”
The PDP further warned of an alleged plot to trigger widespread political crisis to derail the nation’s democratic process and plunge the country into anarchy.
The party also noted that intelligence available to it shows that the Buhari Presidency has directed the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately reshuffle the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in order to deploy “compromised officials” to manipulate the electoral process in President Buhari’s favour, as they did with the police shortly before February 16.
The statement added: ”Our party is also aware of the pressure being mounted by the Buhari Presidency on INEC to cancel elections in some states and make others inconclusive so as to achieve President Buhari’s objectives of a staggered election not minding the crisis such will trigger across the federation.
“We want Nigerians and the international community to hold President Buhari personally responsible for any electoral crisis, otherwise he will, as usual, claim that he was not aware of the plots and transfer the blame to Adams Oshiomhole and Rotimi Amaechi.
“It is already known that President Buhari has been unrelenting in his attempts to subdue our democracy by trying to subjugate the legislature, emasculate the judiciary and seize control of the electoral umpire.
“Nevertheless, the PDP wants to assure President Buhari that our nation is bigger than him and that Nigerians will never allow him and the APC to rig this election.
“Nigerians have reached an irreversible democratic consensus to vote Buhari out and elect the Peoples Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who is ready to rescue our nation from the hardship, anguish, agony and bloodletting which the Buhari administration has plunged us.”