Ime Akpan
The presidency has said that President Muhammadu Buhari will not work to favour the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 23 supplementary polls in Kano, Adamawa, Sokoto, Benue and Plateau states.
The senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu said in a statement in Abuja that the president is “a man of conviction and the manipulation of election results goes against everything he stands for.”
“Party members in states where there will be supplementary elections then need to be reminded that they need to work hard to earn their people’s votes, rather than expect President Buhari to manipulate Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in their favour,” he said.
He cautioned the APC candidates that Buhari would not manipulate the electoral body in their favour and advised political leaders making inflammatory statements capable of inciting the citizenry to violence ahead of the supplementary elections to desist from such acts immediately.
“Some party leaders expected that the President would abuse his office by usurping the powers of INEC to turn the table in their favour. He will do no such thing.”
“A lot of the hate spewing, incitement to violence and the polarizing statements by so-called political leaders as a number of states brace up for supplementary elections prescribed by the National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“The Presidency also rejects unfair and ridiculous criticisms of President Muhammadu Buhari’s apparent disinterest in the upcoming elections in some states by party members who wrongfully assume that the President will abuse power by changing results to favour them.
“The constitution of Nigeria gives the President no such powers. It is unfair and ridiculous to criticise President Buhari for not going against the constitution.
“Past presidents of Nigeria were known to interfere in inconclusive elections, and that is why party members appear to be upset that the same thing is not happening now, but President Buhari is a different kind of leader.
“He swore to defend the constitution and will not veer off from that. The constitution of Nigeria gives the President no such powers.
“Interestingly, while members of the ruling APC party were criticising the President for not interfering on their behalf, members of the opposition were condemning the President based on their assumptions that he would definitely interfere, as many in the opposition did while in power.
“President Buhari is a man of conviction, and the manipulation of election results goes against everything he stands for, INEC is completely in charge,” said Shehu.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed confidence that it would win all the governorship supplementary elections.
The party, in a statement issued by its spokesman, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in Abuja also insisted that planned manipulations of the exercise would be resisted by people of the affected areas.
Ologbondiyan alleged it was unfortunate the APC could seek to play the victim when all facts had established that it militarised the recent elections.
He said nevertheless, the PDP was determined to win the supplementary elections in all the states declared inconclusive by INEC.
“In Benue, it is clear that the people have rejected the APC as clearly demonstrated even in the presidential election. Benue State has always been home to the PDP.
“It is incontestable that our party has the largest genuine followership in all the units, wards and local government areas of the state and as such does not need any underhand measure to secure victory in any election in the state.
“Our winning lead of 81,000 votes was validly delivered at the polling units and that reality will humiliate the APC as it cannot be subverted,” he said.
Ologbondiyan also said that Rivers had always been home to the PDP since 1999.
“The results of all the elections held in Rivers, including the State House of Assembly, showed that the PDP is in control of the state.”
He added that in Kano, the people of the state were known to be incorruptible and would always elect governors that are acceptable to the ordinary people.
“In Bauchi, the PDP has already been elected and this reality cannot be altered by the APC.
“INEC had already established that the APC compromised its official to declare Tafawa Balewa local government area as inconclusive and had restored the votes that were stolen…” he said
He said also said that in Sokoto State, the people gave the PDP their mandate, saying the constitution provides for simple majority of votes for a candidate to win.
“The declared results show that our candidate clearly won and that is why our candidate has been mandated to go to the court to seek interpretation of the section of the constitution that deals with the declaration of results,” he noted.
