Buhari, PDP at war over riot act to ballot box snatchers

…Anybody who snatches ballot box will risk his life – Buhari

…PDP: Your directive capable of triggering widespread political crisis, anarchy

Mathew Dadiya and Tom Okpe, Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Monday, sharply disagreed over his directive that any politician who plans to use thugs to snatch ballot boxes during forthcoming elections will do that at the expense of his life. President Buhari, who is seeking a second term election into office on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), handed down the warning on Monday at the APC emergency National Caucus meeting at the party’s national Secretariat, Abuja. He expressed concerned over the postponement of the elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), lamenting that despite providing all the financial support requested, the commission could not conduct the elections as stipulated. The President’s warning came shortly after the National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole, alleged that the electoral umpire was conniving with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to rig the general election. Oshiomhole also appealed to the president to prevail on INEC Chairman to redeploy all Resident Electoral Commissioners in all the states of the federation, alleging bias and collusion with state governors in opposition states to rig the elections. The President said: “I do not expect anybody to make any disturbance, I have briefed the law enforcement agencies and the military to identify hotspots, flash points, and they should be prepared to move. “They too would have made their own arrangement as possible and resources provided as much as the country can afford it. And anybody who decides to snatch ballot boxes or lead thugs to disturb it (elections) maybe that would be the last unlawful action he would take. I have directed the police and the military to be ruthless. “We are not going to be blamed that we want to rig elections. I want Nigerians to be respected, let them vote whoever they want across the party. I’m not afraid … As you said, I have gone round all the 36 states and Abuja. I think I have gotten enough support across the country. “I am going to warn anybody who thinks he has enough influence in his locality to lead a body of thugs to snatch boxes or to disturb the voting system, he would do it at the expense of his own life.” This is even as the governors of Imo, Rochas Okorocha and Ogun, Ibikunle Amosun, were conspicuously absent at the meeting. Buhari arrived the venue at 11:30 am alongside Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The meeting went into closed door at 12: 22pm. The meeting focused prevailing national issues following Saturday’s postponement of the Presidential and National Assembly elections. President Buhari disclosed that he has ordered security agents to deal ruthlessly with party thugs that tries to snatch ballot boxes. Buhari, who said he is confident that he has garnered enough supporters having gone round the country to campaign, urged party members to reassure their constituents to come out and vote on the rescheduled dates. The President urged party agents to watch out for the party interests at the polling units. Buhari disclosed that he has directed security agencies to identify hot spots and be ready to move should they suspect any attempts to cause problems by thugs across the country irrespective of party affiliations. The President said there is no explanations for what we went through, adding “I was told about the decision of INEC at quarter to 5 in the morning of the elections. “INEC had all the time and resources, didn’t have to wait six hours to the elections to announce postponement. “Definitely, INEC must explain to Nigerians what happened, the constitution and the law protects INEC but they must not take us for granted. “If we had failed to provide all what INEC wanted, then we would have been held responsible. “So at least after the elections, we will have to go into details to find out what happened,” he added. The meeting before it commenced, observed a minute silence in honour of dead supporters at campaign venues across the country. Earlier in his remarks, Oshiomhole commended President Buhari for going round the country to talk to Nigerians. The ruling party chairman said: In the course of going round the country, we saw a lot of very fanatical supporters, some of them even looking under fed, but because of their faith that Buhari, only he can deliver dividends of democracy, they came out”. Oshiomhole said the ruling party was determined not to disappoint supporters and Nigerians. According to him, the party did what is expected to ensure a successful elections including providing all logistics to all those involved in elections exercise including party agents. “We saw INEC’s magic, the worst had happened and postponed the elections by one week without cogent reasons. “If we and ordinary Nigerians were shocked, then we can only imagine how shocked you were, more as you are determined. “This action was meant to frustrate our party and discourage voters. “We are determined to put INEC to shame, and to reiterate that we are committed to free, fair and credible elections. We are not going to compromise on that.” He said apart from being disgusted about INEC’s postponements, he is curious and suspects there is hidden agenda. The Chairman described as “rubbish”, INEC’s excuse about Nigeria’s population and challenges of moving materials around. He called on INEC to move around state commissioners who have been compromised and become institutionalised and which may compromise the outcome of the results. Oshiomhole insisted that INEC’s knew that the election was not going to hold and did leak the information to the main opposition party. He said all early warning indicators showed that INEC had something up it sleeves. He alleged that INEC is working with anti-democratic elements to frustrate free and fair elections. He said INEC has no right to stop campaigns, insisting that voters need to be reminded as this might result in low voters turn out and hinted that they are ready to go to court. Oshiomhole also said the ruling party is going to write INEC to explain if the card readers have been reconfigured and what is the guarantee that it won’t fail, and why deploy only 4,000 card readers, saying what is expected is 176,000 card readers and spares. He said the ruling party does not want staggered elections but elections conducted simultaneously across all pulling units. He said INEC need to assure Nigerians that the samples of sensitive materials already in circulation will not compromise the process. “We must not allow this shock affect our voters, we need to renew campaign and reassure the voters especially APC voters,” he said. He called on President Buhari to ensure those involved in what he called national sabotage are punished using the rule of law. Also in attendance were Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, national leader, Bola Tinubu, and Director General of Buhari Campaign Organisation, Rotimi Amaechi. Governors in attendance as at the time the meeting went into closed doors at were those of Zamfara, Edo, Ekiti, Borno, Bauchi, Ondo, Oyo, Osun, Niger and Nasarawa states. Others were governors of Plateau, Kaduna, Kogi, Kano, Lagos, Jigawa and Kebbi states. Some National Assembly members in attendance included Senate Majority Leader, Ahmed Lawan, Senators Abdullahi Adamu and Godswill Akpabio. Others included governorship candidates of Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Adamawa, and Rivers states. The ministers in attendance were Information and Culture, Power, Works and Housing, Education, and Agriculture. Reacting, the PDP faulted President Buhari’s call on security agents to shoot at sight would be ballot box snatchers during coming elections, describing such directives as capable of triggering widespread political crisis to derail the democratic process and plunge the nation into anarchy. The party in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, condemned the President for uttering such words capable of setting the nation ablaze. The party said: “President Buhari’s threat to the lives of Nigerians, at the opening of APC’s national caucus meeting in Abuja today (Monday), is a direct call for jungle justice and attempt to divert public attention from their closed session where details of their dastardly plot to truncate our democratic process will be perfected. “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 licence to kill, which should not come from any leader of any civilized 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”. Relying on intelligence available, the party alleged 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. Ologbondiyan added that the PDP was 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. It called on Nigerians and the international community to hold President Buhari personally responsible for any electoral crisis. Nevertheless, the PDP assured President Buhari that the 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”, he said. The PDP also demanded an immediate probe of contracts awarded by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to Activate Technologies Ltd to produce sensitive election materials which include smart card readers and Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) by two internationally accredited Independent audit firms. It also called for investigation of the level of partisanship of the owner of the firm, Mohammed Musa, and the implication of the continued handling of INEC materials by such firm. The party said it is poised to reject directives by the Buhari’s Presidency to INEC to reshuffle Residents Electoral Commissioners (RECs) few days to the February 23 polls.