PDP to Buhari: Your presidency reeks of corruption

…Charges Nigerians to defend their votes

Tunde Opalana, Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the more President Muhamnadu Buhari tries to absolve himself from corruption, the more he gets entangled in corruption by people surrounding his government. The party declared that President Buhari has failed his integrity test and has no moral rectitude to pontificate on corruption, having entangled himself and soiled his administration in corruption. PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan at a press briefing in Abuja on Sunday said if there is any person whose activities of corruption have become a threat to the coming election, it is President Buhari, who is financing his campaign with looted funds, while surrounding himself with politicians indicted for corruption. The party, according to him, had out of respect for the Office of the President of Federal Republic of Nigeria, severally refrained from calling out President Buhari on his various indictments for corruption even during his era as a military ruler. “A clear reading of Mr. President’s statement today shows that he is not yet aware that Nigerians have decoded his mastery of concealments of corruption in his Presidency and are no longer interested in his failed self-acclaimed fight against corruption. “President Buhari presides over the most corrupt and incompetent administration in the history of our nation, for which Nigerians are very eager to go to the polls on Saturday to vote him out of office. “If Mr. President were to be aware, he would have discovered that his entire surrounding reeks of moral, institutional and integrity corruption. But since he has consistently claimed not to be aware of anything around him, it is imperative to let him know that the fish in his pond is rotten from the head. “Clinical examples can be drawn from his campaign council. Nigerians are aware that not a few members of this council have been indicted on malfeasance bordering on corruption “Is it not strange therefore that President Buhari who wants Nigerians to perceive his administration as fighting corruption, will cast a net into the ocean and bring out only corrupt people to run his campaign? “The truth is that Nigerians have seen more than enough of the fake fight against corruption and have come to a conclusion that President Buhari is merely paying lip services to this fight. He has no intention to do it and even if he had the opportunity to govern perpetually, he will never fight corruption”, he said. Rather than seeking for sympathy votes, the party urged President Buhari to simply admit his failure in governance and allow Nigerians to build their future by getting our nation working again under the leadership of Atiku Abubakar. In another development, the PDP reiterated its alert on the nation and the international community of the series of designs by the Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig the February 16 Presidential election, The party had on February 4, 2019, gave the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) a 48-hour ultimatum to make public the list of all officials and ad-hoc staff that will play any form of role in the February 16 Presidential election at all levels, for verification by stakeholders. Ologbondiyan in his capacity as Director, Mefia and Publicity of PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation said the demand was predicated on findings that the INEC leadership in deferring to directives by Buhari Presidency and the APC had collected lists of APC loyalists from APC state governors and candidates, across the federation to serve as electoral officials, including ad-hoc staff and returning officers at the polling units. “You will recall that upon our demand the APC openly directed INEC to ignore the PDP and go ahead with its compromised list. Shockingly INEC leadership appeared to have obeyed the APC ostensibly because of threats by the party’s to give its leadership the “Onnoghen treatment” if it fails to comply. “The world is already aware of how INEC has continued to allow the foisting of a relation of President Muhammadu Buhari, Mrs. Amina Zakari, as the head of the INEC collation centre, where she is being positioned to alter results and allocate figures to President Buhari and the APC, in spite of the public outrage against such. “We had also alerted of plots to manipulate the smart card readers so as to substitute biometric accreditation with manual verification and pave way for mass rigging and allocation of fictitious votes for President Buhari. ” From the foregoing, it is clear to all that the Buhari Presidency and the APC are out to rig the election and that INEC is in clear deficit of the required will to conduct a credible, free and fair election”, he said.. In the light of this, the PDP declared that it will never allow the Buhari Presidency, the APC and Amina Zakari to have their way against the nation. He said the PDP has resolved “to unbridle, in full measure, all defence machinery legitimately available to us, including our numerical strength, in marching with millions of Nigerians across our nation to defend our votes, with the stiffest resistance, ever, against any infraction by the APC and the Buhari Presidency”. The party, therefore, charged all its members and supporters, in their millions, to politically occupy and become extra vigilant by closely monitoring all electoral activities around their polling centres. “Our members and supporters are hereby directed to get prepared to arrive at their polling centres very early on the day of election; monitor the activities of electoral officers, note all strange faces and resist any attempt by any alien or unregistered person to vote. “Our members and supporters are further directed to remain at the polling centre after casting their votes, monitor the collation of result, use all means available to defend all our votes to the last and ensure that no result is altered. “In this determination, the PDP is ready to confront the Buhari-controlled security forces and APC thugs, head to head, at all levels. For this, we charge our members and supporters to use every means available to them legitimately in a democracy to defend themselves and resist all acts of intimidation by the APC”, he charged party supporters.