Buhari insincere about re-run election posture – PDP

…Says action confirms he rigged Presidential poll

…’Soldiers should steer clear of reruns’

Tunde Opalana, Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Monday, said that President Muhammadu Buhari is hypocritical about his posturing that he will not manipulate the March 23 Governorship supplementary elections as his body language and that of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), shows insincerity.

The party alleged that Buhari’s action is not only a direct confession that the Presidency used its overbearing influence to rig the February 23 Presidential election, but also a fresh subterfuge to divert public attention from APC’s rigging plots ahead of the Supplementary elections.

The PDP insisted that the Presidency’s confession that APC members are mounting pressure on President Buhari to help them to rig the Supplementary elections further confirms the Buhari Presidency’s manipulative and rigging capacity, including militarisation of the electoral process, instigating of violence and alteration of results, as were freely used by the APC in the Presidential election.

The party in a statement on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary. Kola Ologbondiyan, alerted Nigerians, especially those in states where the supplementary elections have been scheduled to hold, to be wary of the antics of the Buhari Presidency, as it has never been committed to free, fair and credible election.

“Nigerians can recall that ahead of the Presidential and National Assembly elections, President Buhari had promised to allow for a free, fair, transparent and credible process, only for his Presidency and party, the APC, to engage in downright manipulations at INEC, deployment of military and thugs to intimidate and suppress voters, as well as outright alteration of results delivered from the polling units.

“President Buhari cannot exonerate himself of the harm inflicted on our polity by the deployment of soldiers in the 2019 general elections, as nobody deploys the military except the President and Commander-in-Chief.

“Now that President Buhari, in his official capacity, has come out to state that he will not intervene in the March 23 Supplementary election, we ask, is Mr. President assuring Nigerians that any ‘soldier’ seen directly involving in the rerun election is fake and should be treated as such?”, he said.

The PDP charged the military to note the import of the statement by the Presidency and steer clear of the supplementary elections.

The party also cautioned INEC officials to note that Nigerians are very eager about the outcome of the governorship supplementary elections, given that the PDP is already leading in these states.

“Nigerians are not ready to accept any results that do not reflect the reality of our victory, which is already known to all,” the PDP stated.