Singapore News Channel, Singapore News Network

President Muhammadu Buhari courted controversy on Monday afternoon when he threatened that anyone engaged in ballot box snatching or other forms of electoral violence would do so “at the expense of his own life.”

The President said at the caucus meeting of the All Progressives Congress that he had given security agencies the order to “deal ruthlessly ” with anyone seeking to disrupt the elections .

He said , “Anybody who decides to snatch ballot boxes or lead thugs to disturb it , maybe this is the last unlawful action you will take .

“I really gave the military and the Police ( order ) 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 parties .

“I am going to warn anybody who thinks he has enough influence in his locality to lead a body of thugs or to disturb the voting system, he will do it at the expense of his own life.”

The Electoral Act ( 2010 ), however , does not prescribe death for any electoral offence.
The maximum sentence for snatching of ballot boxes is 24 months in prison .

Section 129 ( 4 ) of the Electoral Act states, “Any person who snatches or destroys any election material commits an offence and is liable on conviction to 24 months imprisonment .”

The Act further states that anyone who directly or indirectly engages in electoral violence shall be liable to three years in prison or a fine of N1 m
Section 131 . ( 1 ) states , “A person who – Threatening directly or indirectly, by himself or by another person on his behalf, makes use of or threatens to make use of any force , violence or restrain; ( b ) inflicts or threatens to inflict by himself or by any other person, any minor or serious injury , damage, harm or loss on or against a person in order to induce or compel that person to vote or refrain from voting , or on account of such person having voted or refrained from voting ; or ( c ) by abduction, duress , or a fraudulent device or contrivance , impedes or prevents the free use of the vote by a voter or thereby compels , induces , or prevails on a voter to give or refrain from giving his vote, ( d ) by preventing any political aspirants from free use of the media , designated vehicles , mobilisation of political support and campaign at an election , commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of N1 , 000 , 000 or imprisonment for a term of three years .”

Punch

The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, Monday asked Nigerians to understand and comprehend the statement made earlier by the Presidential candidate of the party, President Muhammadu Buhari, noting that his postulations were not ambiguous to understand.

Recall that Buhari had said that whoever tries to Snatch ballot box, or disrupt the election will pay with his life.

Miffed with his statement, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP through its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, accused APC and Buhari of trying to truncate democracy, saying that Buhari’s threat to the lives of Nigerians, at the opening of APC’s national caucus meeting in Abuja today, 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.

Defending Buhari, Tinubu averred that President Buhari’s statement was clear to understand and urged Nigerians not to misunderstand him.

His words, “I was in that meeting; the president was just reinforcing the fact that if you are out there snatching ballot boxes, and causing destruction, you are at risk of your own life.

“Whatever happens to you; no president will give an order that his own citizens should be shot summarily. No! No, its okay, emotions are running high these days. Any individual including myself can be misinterpreted.

“These are not his words; he is a law abiding person and he understands categorically and clearly what rule of law is and the lives of individual citizens, that he is in that office to protect.

“Now, let me run this; he has been fighting Boko Haram, kidnappers and all these before this election, did you hear him asking them to be shot and executed summarily? If he has gone through that in the last five years, please give a benefit of the doubt.”

Vanguard

Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says some resident electoral commissioners of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have been compromised.

Speaking at an emergency meeting of APC leaders in Abuja on Monday, the chairman of the ruling party asked the commission to reshuffle such individuals.

He said the APC is not really interested in where people are posted to, advising INEC to use its discretion.

“Mr President, I also believe that because you are the president, you have dual responsibility, one is to ensure that any institution of state that has misbehaved, anybody that is involved in that act, particularly actions that can weaken the fabric of our democracy, Mr President, you have a duty to trigger the process that will compel everyone involved in all of this to account,” he said.

“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 use today to review what has happened (postponement of elections) in various states. On my part, as they say ‘when the going gets tough, the tough gets going’, I am much more determined that our message to the the Nigerian people, we must revive it, we must insist these elections are conducted properly, some INEC RECs have been compromised, the INEC leadership do not have the right to impose a corrupt or compromised INEC RECs on us.

“When sufficient doubt has been raised on the character, integrity of a referee, no responsible match authority will impose that referee. We don’t care where anybody is posted to but INEC has the discretion to move people around.”

Oshiomhole also faulted the commission over the postponement of the general election, saying the party would go ahead with campaigns irrespective of the directive of the commission not to do so.

The commission postponed the exercise barely six hours to the opening of polling stations on Saturday, citing logistic challenges.

Oshiomhole said INEC does not have the right to prevent APC from continuing to reach out to the people in the week to the election.

“If at our level, we are sufficiently disturbed, what would be the fate of the ordinary man? I think we need to remind them across the country that elections have been rescheduled and they should have trust, faith, and remain determined to vote,” he said.

“The process of doing that would require that we return to campaign between now and Thursday this week. Friday is not a campaign day.

 To ask us as a political party not to go out? The members, our people, would have forgotten. Some would have assumed that ‘look, I’m not sure what these people want’. And the result could be very, very low turnout. That is not good for a party that has huge, huge support base. It can only be good for a party that is not sure of its level of grassroots support.

“So, without consulting INEC, we are proceeding and we are ready to meet them in court. Because they cannot by administrative fiat amend or distort extra provisions in the relevant electoral act and those laws are not secret to INEC.”

The cable

The National Caucus of the All Progressives Congress has expressed curiosity that certain leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party had full knowledge of the plan to postpone the elections hours before INEC made the announcement.

The caucus also urged security agencies to ensure that those involved in violence, ballot box snatching, and falsification of election results face the full weight of the law.
This was part of resolutions reached at the end of the caucus ’ emergency meeting held at the APC national secretariat on Monday in Abuja.

According to a communique issued and signed by the APC National Chairman , Mr. Adams Oshiomhole , the Caucus also resolved that the February 23 rescheduled presidential and National Assembly elections must remain sacrosanct .

It added that issues of logistics and other foreseeable challenges experienced by the Independent National Electoral Commission that prompted the postponement of the elections must be addressed to ensure that the elections do not suffer any hitch whatsoever.

The Caucus expressed curiosity over the fact that certain leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party had full knowledge of the plan to postpone the elections hours before INEC made the announcement .

The Caucus , therefore, urged INEC to demonstrate its independence and neutrality beyond doubts in all of its activities before , during and after the period of elections as rescheduled .

It expressed deep regrets over the unfortunate death of some of the party ’ s members due to stampede as a result of overwhelming crowds during the party ’ s presidential campaigns in some states of the federation .

The communique said the Caucus received with shock and disbelief, the last – minute postponement of the Feb . 16 Presidential and National Assembly elections .

It reiterated the party ’ s disappointment over the postponement of the elections , considering especially , the repeated assurances by INEC that all challenges would be resolved before the elections .

“Notwithstanding the disappointment over the postponement , the Caucus urged all APC members across the country to rise above this temporary setback, ” the communique said.

It charged members of the party to recommit themselves to working with re -doubled efforts for the victory of all its candidates in the Feb . 23 and March 9 rescheduled dates for the elections .

It urged all APC members to immediately commence campaigns in line with the provisions of Section 99 ( 1 ) of the Electoral Act , which stated clearly that campaigns should stop 24 hours to the elections .
“Our party will therefore abide by the provisions of the law, ” the communique said.

It, however , observed that the list of presiding officers in the States and Local Government Areas published by INEC prior to the aborted February 16 elections contained names of mostly PDP card carrying members .

It, therefore , urged INEC to take steps to correct this anomaly to ensure fairness and credibility of the electoral process .

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the APC national caucus which is a statutory organ of the party , was chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari and had the Vice President and all the party ’ s former and serving governors as members .

Its membership also includes the party ’ s serving governors, and members of its National Working Committee , among others.

The INEC Chairman , Prof . Mahmood Yakubu , had, a few hours to commencement of the presidential and National Assembly elections , announced the rescheduling of the elections by one week .

By the postponement , the Presidential and National Assembly elections now come up on February 23, while the governorship and State House of Assembly and FCT Area Councils elections come up on March 9 .

Yakubu had said the decision to postpone the elections was taken after a meeting with INEC Commissioners , citing “logistics ’’ problems as issues that prompted the postponement.

He said the decision was further necessitated after reviewing the level of the commission’ s preparedness for the exercise.

He stressed that postponing the elections was a difficult decision , but was necessary for the successful delivery of the free , fair and credible elections and to consolidate on Nigeria’ s democracy .

( NAN )

President Muhammadu Buhari Monday in Abuja said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) owed Nigerians detailed explanation for its decision to delay the general elections.

Speaking at the All Progressives Congress (APC) emergency caucus meeting at the party secretariat, President Buhari said:

‘‘Definitely, the reasons such incompetence manifested have to be explained to the nation.  After the elections, we have to know exactly what happened and who is responsible.

‘‘The constitution and the laws protect INEC but they must not take us for granted. If for example, the National Assembly refused to approve what INEC wanted, then INEC would have more than enough reasons why they couldn’t perform.

‘‘If the time for the constitutional elections, four years after was not obeyed by the government and the system, INEC will have a case. But we do not understand why this inefficiency and we have to move into details after the election to find out who’s responsible.’’

Noting that the electoral commission had all the time and resources it needed to conduct the polls, the President said there was no justification ‘‘to wait for only six hours to postpone the votes’’,  in the early hours of February 16.

The President also used the occasion to warn all political actors to ensure an environment free from intimidation and violence for all eligible citizens to peacefully cast their ballot on the Election Day.

The President announced that he has directed security agencies to contain any acts of lawlessness before, during and after the elections.

‘‘We are not going to be blamed of trying to rig the elections. I want Nigerians to be respected. Let them vote whoever they want across the parties. I am not afraid, I have gone to all 36 states and Abuja and I think I have enough support across the country,’’ he said.

President Buhari urged all APC supporters to vote peacefully in the upcoming elections.

‘‘We have so much to do and I think we should again go back to our loyal, committed people in all constituencies. If anything happens we have nobody to blame.

‘‘We have to tell our constituencies that they have to be patient and act in a very responsible way by going peacefully to vote again, and they should depend on party representatives at each of the 176,000 polling units,’’ he said.

Garba Shehu
Senior Special Assistant to the President
(Media & Publicity)
February 18, 2019

It is now almost exactly four years to the day, that Nigerians gave President Buhari the mandate to change the story of Nigeria. Else where and a few months back, I scored the Buhari-led APC administration 52% for its achievements in the last four years.

Here are 60 indelible achievements of the President Mohammadu Buhari-led APC federal administration between 2015 and 2019. Discounting even eight achievements, the Buhari administration obviously merits the 52% I scored the administration. Though very clearly, the administration could do more and has shown the capacity and ability to do more.

The list is in no particular order. But some inactions of many previous administrations which were in better position to do, but did not, give an idea of how and why many more serious things have remained undone in Nigeria. I have deliberately started with some unbelievably simple things that were not done for decades, that this Buhari civilian administration has done to merit a second term. Who can disprove any of the following claims?

1 – Payments have begun, of 25 years old Arrears of Civil Service Pensioners.

2 – Ex Nigerian airways workers pensions approved for payment and payment begins, more than a decade after the sale of the organisation.

3 – Ex-Biafra police officers paid their pensions, almost 50 years after the Nigerian Civil War ended.

4 – The Nigerian govt agreed to out-of-court settlement of 88 billion naira for the reconstruction of public infrastructure damaged in Biafra.

5 – N1.3 Trillion naira fund bailouts was given to help with clearing humongous backlog of allowances and salary arrears of civil servants in 22 states.

6 – June 12 recognized as Democracy day. Chief M.K.O. Abiola as now been honoured along with Alh. Babagana Kingibe and Chief Gani Fawehinmi and other heroes of the June 12 Struggle.

7 – The Federal Govt has suspended new Laws enacted by a preceding administration,  mandating maximum tenure for heads of religious organisations. The Law is now to be modified.

8 – History has been returned as a School Subject in the Nigerian curriculum

9 – Christian Religious Studies has also been restored as a Subject in School curriculum in the country

10 – The historic value disparity between HND graduates of Polytechnics and University graduates has now been resolved and laid to rest. Polytechnics now to become Universities of Technology to be awarding the Bachelor of Technology Degree. Lower lever Polytechnic certificates are now to be rated as technician certifications.

11 – Successful enumeration of all abandoned infrastructure projects in the country and technical evaluation for reactivation needs of all identified projects. Among the abandoned or suspended Projects now reactivated and currently in various stages of completion are

12 – The Mambila Plateau HydroPower Project abandoned 40 years ago, has been reactivated.

13 – The Ajaokuta Steel Projects has now also been reactivated after more than 30 years of being under construction!

14 – The Esan Water Project in Edo, awarded in 1997 was also reactivated and is now essentially completed

15 – The Dadin Kowa Dam Project in Gombe, started since 1975, some 43 years ago, was reactivated and now nearing completion.

16 – Commissioning and completion of technical review and evaluation for the construction, reconstruction or rehabilitation needs of 322 federal highways, including some road projects which were abandoned more than 40 years ago.

17 – The Lagos – Ibadan Express Road reconstruction and rehabilitation is now nearing 80% completion, after almost 18 years of unsuccessful efforts to rehabilitate the road.

18 – The  Lagos – Abeokuta Express Road and Federal Highway is now being reconstructed too, after almost 30 years.

19 -The Ikorodu-Sagamu Federal Highway is also now being reconstructed after almost 35 years too.

20 – The rehabitation and reconstruction of the Apapa Port Road and the rehabiltation of the Ijora Causeway is more than 60% completed

21 – The Port Harcourt- Enugu federal Highway reconstruction has reached an advanced stage

22 – The 40-year- old East-West Highway Project has been reactivated.

23 -The Ikom-Itu Federal Highway reconstruction Project and many other roads in the South South

24 – Work has started and foundation pilings and all land pillars have been completed on the  2nd Niger Bridge construction, again after almost 30 years of planning

25 – North East insurgency is being gradually suppressed. Nigerian territory, including 16 Local Government Areas, which the Boko Haram had taken under the Jonathan administration, have now been recovered and rebuilding commenced.

26 – The Nigerian military under President Buhari, has ensured the release of more than 26,800 persons who had been kidnapped by the Boko Haram.

27 – More 70% of the almost 300 school girls kidnapped by the Book Haram in Chibok under PDP have now been released. Only one school girl is now still being held by the Boko Haram after similar kidnapping of more than another 100 school girls in Dapchi under the Buhari regime.

28 – Military barracks are being restored nationwide after more than 20 years of dilapidation.

29 – The Environmental Cleanup of Ogoni Land has begun, after almost 30 years of clamour.

30 – The abandoned National Cancer Centre Project in Abuja, has been completed and opened. Equipment for the Cancer Centre was abandoned in shipping containers since 2012, yet Nigeria had no functional public Cancer Centre.

31 – All unfinished railway and abandoned transportation projects across the country, were successfully evaluated, reviewed and restarted, with all and every possible bottlenecks and hindrances removed.

32 – Plans for new railway projects across the country including one transborder railway project, have been completed and the construction agreements now being signed. Under the new Railway transportation plans for the country, every Nigerian state capital will now be connected to the national railway network which will also connect all major Ports in Nigeria to major industrial centres and agricultural production hubs in each of Nigeria’s six geo-political regions.

33 – Kaduna-Abuja Rail Project, approved in 2002 and started since 2007 is now finished and fully operational

34 – The Abuja Light Rail Project also started since 2007, is now finished and running

35 – The Warri-Itakpe Railway link, started and abandoned 35 years ago, was restarted by the Buhari administration and is also now running

36 – A new Lagos-Ibadan Express Railway Project has been kicked off by the Buhari administration, as part of a new standard-gauge railway lines project between Lagos and Kano, through Abuja. The Abeokuta-Lagos section of the project is now ready and is being test run. The Project started just two years ago in August 2017.

37 – Repair of the over 25-year old Abuja Airport Runway which had been overdue for over 10 years, was started and successfully completed in an unbelievable 90 days of 24-hour daily construction operations.

38 – Payment of cash gifts promised to Golden Eaglets of 1983, some thirty five years ago

39 – Redemption of promises of House gift made to Bonfrere Jo, Coach of Nigeria’s Super Eagles 1996 Olympics Football Gold winning Team

40 – Resolution of the Issue of Title Deeds of Property Gift  to the Christian Chukwu-led Nigerian Green Eagles Team which won the the 1980 Nations Cup.

41 – Major rehabilitation and expansion works are now going on, in three major Airports, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja. The Port Harcourt Airport (voted world’s worst in 2015, is now a brand new airport). A new international Airport has also been completed in Abuja, while work has reached advanced stages for modernisation of the  Benin, Kaduna, and Enugu Airports among others.

42 – Estimated Electricity Consumption billing has been outlawed and electric power meters are now being provided for homes for free, 10 years after they were promised, when Nigeria’s power assets were sold.

43 – Verification of claims and Payments have began, of part of outstanding debts to contractors across the country, estimated to be more than  N2 Trillion as at 2015.

44 – Payment of significant portions of debts owed to Oil companies, including outstanding long-delayed counterpart funds for Joint Venture Projects.

45 – The inspector General of Police has been ordered to revisit the issues surrounding the death of Chief Bola Ige and other unresolved political assassinations in the country.

46 – Restocking and re-equipping of the Nigerian military, something abandoned for many years
– New fighter jets acquired as against no serviceable fixed wing fighter Jet in 2015.
– Six New helicopters, the first time in almost twenty years and
– 12 Super Tucano Fighter Jets have been fully paid for. Deliveries have already started and will be concluded by 2020.
– The largest hardware investment in the Nigeria military in almost 25 years has been under Preaident Buhari.

47 – Approval has been given for the dredging of the Warri Ports, as was being agitated for in the region for decades.

48 – Official Recognition of Anambra and Lagos State as Crude Oil producing states devoid of the old politics and unnecessary bureaucracy

49 – Handing over of wasting federal assets on state-donated lands, such as the Tarawa Balewa Square, National Stadium and old Airport Presidential Lounge in Lagos and the International Tradefair Complex to the Lagos State government

50 – Clearing of over 700 out of 800 containers of Power Sector equipment abandoned in the Nigerian Ports since 2005 instead of installation for more reliable power supply in the country.

51 – Correction of the trend of depletion of foreign reserves and savings by growing foreign reserves from 29 billion dollars to above 47 billion, and adding fresh funds to sovereign wealth fund for the first time since the inception in 2005.

52 – Establishment of long over due Infrastructure Development Bank of Nigeria.

53 – Correction of the injustice of no rolling over of data roll by mobile phone companies to consumers. Before now, unused but paid-for data was cancelled at the end of the month. Today the government has ordered that to stop. This touches the masses right away.

54 – Clamp down on the Islamic movement of Nigeria, a group that has for over two decades shown itself as not recognizing government and terrorized citizens. The clamp down is seemingly high-handed though for now

55 – Establishment of Petroleum University in Okeronkoko in the  Niger Delta region, a project long sought after in the region.

56 – Order to Oil majors to relocate headquarters back to the Niger Delta Region, another long sought move.

57 – One of the largest free school feeding projects in the world. Some 9.3 million Nigerian children are now being fed free of charge in schools, in a project that has seen school enrolment increase by as much as 34%.

58 – The youth employment programme, the N – Power Programme now has 500,000 Youths being paid N30,000 monthly while they are been trained and taken through diverse skills acquisition programmes.

59 – For the first time in Nigeria’s history, the poorest of the poor in trading and other ultra small scale  businesses, are now being given interest free loans starting from N10,000 each graduating to a maximum of N100,000. More than one million traders have been won nationwide and brought under the special programme being administered by the Nigerian Bank of Industry.

60. There is a FarmerMoni Programme similar to the TraderMoni, but for ultra small scale farmers, working through different farmer cooperatives. This is the smallest scale support for farming in the country. It complements the massively successful Nigerian Central Bank backed anchor borrowers programme for agriculture. The Anchor-borrowers programme gets a Bank to provide all the needed funds and other support, to particular groups of farmers to maximise output of the particular agricultural produce, while it works directly with ready off-takers of the  agricultural produce as a marketing guarantee. This has accounted majorly for Nigeria’s 10-fold increase in Rice production and three fold increase on Cassava production. It has also caused substantial increases in the production of Yam, Pal Kernel, Tomatoes and Maize.

Please note that I omitted the adoption and implementation of the very important institutional controls like the adoption of the Single Treasury Accounting for public funds, because it is a positive achievement just like the current Presidency’s effort to avoid riding rough shod on states or other arms of government, except for issues tending towards the criminal.

I also have been unable to confirm other improvements in the  education sector for proper documentation. Neither could I confirm plans and executions in the health sector among others. Nigeria obviously still has a long long way to go, but we are evidently in moving up.

It is obvious from the list, that this first term of the APC is more of repairing and restoring as well as completion of long abandoned projects. The APC needs a second term to conclude many of the projects and lay a good foundation for Nigeria’s future. Let us give the APC another four years, then it will be fair to compare the APC’s eight years and the PDP’s ruinous 16 years that are better forgotten.

*The core difference between president Buhari and former Vice President Atiku is that if you leave money on the table for Buhari, you will return to the money untouched but with Atiku, you may not even find the table -*

(COPIED from WhatsApp)

STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE

STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT BUHARI ON THE POSTPONEMENT OF GENERAL ELECTIONS BY INEC

I am deeply disappointed that despite the long notice given and our preparations both locally and internationally, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) postponed the Presidential and National Assembly elections within hours of its commencement.

Many Nigerians have traveled to various locations to exercise their right to vote, and international observers are gathered.

INEC themselves have given assurances, day after day and almost hour after hour that they are in complete readiness for the elections. We and all our citizens believed them.

This administration has ensured that we do not interfere in any way with the work of INEC except to ensure that all funds were released to the commission.

We now urge INEC to ensure not only that materials already distributed are safe and do not get into wrong hands, but that everything is done to avoid the lapses that resulted in this unfortunate postponement, and ensure a free and fair election on the rescheduled dates.

While I reaffirm my strong commitment to the independence, neutrality of the electoral umpire and the sanctity of the electoral process and ballot, I urge all political stakeholders and Nigerians to continue to rally round INEC at this trying national moment in our democratic journey.

I, therefore, appeal to all Nigerians to refrain from all civil disorder and remain peaceful, patriotic and united to ensure that no force or conspiracy derail our democratic development.

I have decided to move back to Abuja to ensure that the 14.00 hrs meeting called by INEC with all stakeholders is successful.

Muhammadu Buhari

Daura, February 16, 2019

Events capable of defining this election week and which may linger beyond the post-election period if not properly checked have occurred within the last 48 hours, and, as it seems, we may not have seen the last of them yet. The offices of INEC in various parts of the country were gutted with fire and trucks transporting election materials were intercepted and set ablaze. The common denominator in the two separate incidence type is that card readers were being grossly destroyed. The case is to goad INEC to resort to the use of incidence form during the elections ,absolutely  for possible rigging and manipulations  .

It does not take rocket science to correlate that the PDP has always insisted and been pressurizing INEC to abandon the use of the Smart Card Reader for the coming elections but were unsuccessful, and suddenly, Smart Card Readers are being destroyed across the country. The PDP has, simultaneously, gone to court to seek an injunction stopping the use of Smart Card Readers while destroying the card readers. The coincidences are beyond natural occurrences. The electronic device shall ascribe more credibility to the entire electoral system and reduce the incidence of fraud. It is baffling to imagine the PDP which is calling for credible elections is against the use of a device that would make the process more credible. In the 2015 general elections, the PDP kicked against the use of the device because they realized that they were not winning elections because they were popular among the electorate but because they control the machineries necessary to rig the processes and write election result at will. Having lost the last election and have spent the entire campaign session without present to Nigerians any achievement of the party in 16 years of their rule or of its presidential flag bearer but only fabrication of unsubstantiated allegations  that President Buhari government  is equally corrupt as they are confirmed to be, they have resorted to blackmailing the person of the President, INEC and the entire process at the expense of the nation.

Nigerians, we must all be vigilant during the elections. Our votes must count; we would not allow any person or group of person to manipulate us any longer. PDP is recklessly determined on disrupting the elections. They are churning out lies and propagandas to heat up the system and create violence in the streets. Yesterday ,they posted fake news of trucks of stacked with thumb-printed ballot boxes already in favour of APC were released online which later found out to be false .  All these is to instigate an uprising in selected volatile areas of the country so as to discredit the process of the election, and eventually manufactured results and arbitrarily declared themselves  winners .

The hours following before the elections shall bring upon us more concoctions and ludicrous activities from the Atiku group. More lies and propagandas will flood the country, more attempts aimed at discrediting INEC and implicating the ruling party will be released.

The security outfit must stay put on their responsibilities now, more than ever so to safe guard the sanctity and sovereignty of our beloved country . INEC must be provided with enough security to secure the material and electoral process. The government should also see to it that perpetrators of any dastardly  acts are apprehended and brought to book decisively.

This is a period we must all line up behind INEC and the security outfit to do their works. We cannot become better as a nation if we cannot allow our electioneering process to run peacefully without undue manipulations as we have seen in the past and as the PDP are planning on carrying out as they always had.

The PDP has manipulated each and every election conducted under their watch in Nigeria using state resources and power until the Smart Card Reader came and the electorate felt it was the answer to their prayers against the electoral fraud of the PDP. They do not believe in the possibility of winning elections in a fair game. The Dubai strategies did not consider the possibility of Atiku winning if the game is played fairly; they planned only to perfect backdoor winning strategies, an art they have mastered in the past.

This is the period for President Buhari to take up the responsibility of ensuring that he gives Nigerians a free, fair and credible election. This is another time for President Buhari to demonstrate his integrity to the world by ensuring that all sectors of the Federal Government work towards achieving a credible election in Nigeria against the odds the PDP are trying hard to destroy.

Inciting violence and engaging in acts capable of discrediting INEC will only create chaos in the country. The PDP must learn that calling out for violence publicly like one of their chieftains did in Kaduna is only buttressing the fact that they have not changed from who Nigerians think they are. They must call themselves and their errand boys to order or be ready for the full anger of Nigerians and the full wrath of the law.

As it has always been, in all humility, I welcome constructive criticism to the above submission

May Nigeria Succeed!

We had known and categorically asserted before now that the only reason Atiku and his cohorts went to Dubai to plan their way into Presidency was because they already knew that they had no chance of winning a free and fair election, at this moment, against President Buhari or in the nearest future against any serious contender. The Dubai meeting was a concoction of schemes to collectively rob the entire Nigerian electorate and win the presidential election through devilry, cheating, deceit and unholy manipulations of the electoral processes.

The major strategies produced by the evil propositions from Dubai contain three elements. The first was the grand plan to internally disrupt the entire country with lies and unfounded propagandas against the sitting president. They were so good at it but the problem is that Nigerians have become more enlightened and able to sieve the lies and discard mendacities. This is responsible for the ineffectiveness of the very many lies from Atiku, his running mate and their many pawns. That is the reason the Amina Zakari issue, the ownership of 9-mobile and the very many other fabrications from the campaign council of Atiku Abubakar were all dead on arrival. We all remember the vice-presidential debate and the myriad of unnecessary concoction of figures and lies to deceive Nigerians to accept the candidature of Atiku and the good jobs Nigerians did after the program to rebuke PDP for reducing itself to such a trifle.

The second plan was the engagement of the services of Mr Brian D. Ballard of the *BALLARD PARTNERS, INC.*, a US-based firm which was believe to have lobbied for diplomatic waiver to enable Atiku enter United States, is planning to manipulate the electoral system electronically the very way they did for Trump in the last election in the US. Mr Brian and his office are said to be placed on a contractual agreement worth $90,000 (₦31.5m) monthly which shall also last for as long as the contract would, came under the obligation to pave way for Mr. Atiku to enter US despite a long standing ban on him. According to reliable information the firm also has the task of organization and perfection of a cyber-attack in Nigeria to aid his victory at the polls. It was for this purpose that the PDP insisted on passing of the electoral law that will approve only electronic transmission of election results from the field. The company’s responsibility was to import the technology and train the manpower to use it locally. The proposed software would have jammed INEC system and automatically replace several documents during transmission. It therefore creates little wonder that until about two weeks ago when INEC came out to categorically state that all results will be manually transmitted, PDP was still busy pushing its luck by blackmailing the commission to abandon manual transmission of results. PDP would have created a serious unprecedented integrity issue for INEC Ann the electoral process . How will INEC explain out the existence of a near legitimate result favouring the PDP as against its own authentic result in favour of another candidate? There would be cry of rigging and possibly grounds for litigation and finally an opportunity for PDP to go down gracefully as the cheated one instead of as a villain that has been disgraced.
With the exposure and failure of that plan, PDP has decided to go ahead with the plan of arresting communication in specific locations on the day of the election while they perpetuate their rigging plan. Pre-empting the possibility of the ruling party’s reaction and Nigeria’s rejection, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, speaking for his principal is already trying to divert attention from themselves when they eventually implement their plan of jamming all communications around selected regions.

It calls for serious questioning how Mr Fayose got the information that APC jammed telecoms networks 3Km around the Government House and other locations during the Ekiti Elections and yet did not cry out as has been his manner until now. We must also be prepared to stop PDP from disrupting the election and change the will of Nigerians in the forthcoming elections.

Nigerians must collectively be prepared for the PDP grand plan to create integrity issues against INEC by collating and projecting fake election results to the public and claim it is the authentic result. The plans may  include breaking into INEC server to manipulate information and results transmission. This is part of their pact with some election  pundits  on their payroll. This will give them grounds to accuse the ruling party of rigging the elections in favour of its principal. Earlier, we raised the issue of PDP establishing command centres across the nation for this purpose.

A covering letter and report alleged to have originated from the Brian Ballard Company was immediately denied by both PDP and Mr Ballard as expected. Will he accept that the letter originated from him and truncate all chances of his principal winning the election? It is expedient of common sense to think that their first reaction should be denial. For what purpose would such a letter emerge from elsewhere at this material time? Unlike PDP, the President and his party are very sure of victory at the polls and have no reason to resort to unbecoming, disparage and diminishing acts as projected by PDP. Nigerians know better.

The third devilish agenda from Dubai was the strategic placement of the suspended CJN Walter Onnoghen. Perhaps the reason behind PDP outcry on the issue was for the singular expected duty of the then Chief Justice as defined was to await the day the presidential election litigation would get to his court and simply throw all caution to the air as he faults the victory of President Buhari and declare Atiku winner of the election and President-Elect. The fact remains that after such pronouncement, Nigeria will be turmoil; there would be chaos yet the pronouncement, like the word of gods, stands. We must all have providence to thank for exposing the suspended CJN and prevent such theft of our franchise. You would imagine the vehemence with which PDP responded to the suspension and threatened to upturn Nigeria if the decision is not rescinded. As soon as it was confirmed that Onnoghen is gone forever, Atiku started to mull losing and what would happen after that.

It is now lurid that the entire Dubai plan is a fiasco because it lacks the basic elements of healthy participation in the game of electioneering; it was filled with devilish arrangements intended to usurp power in the country. Nigeria has grown beyond manipulation, cohesion to unhealthy submission, and acceptance of lies. PDP lost contact with reality; the party was of the opinion that Nigerians were the same people they manipulated for 16 years and had their way all through but no, it has seized to be business as usual.

The worst scenario, though not coming from the Dubai template is the element of desperation currently being exhibited by PDP. After failing in its entire plan, the party has now resolved to impede smooth running of the election by preventing the use of card readers in every region possible. They have been against this all along, knowing it was singularly responsible for their loss in 2015 and would still stand as the major obstacle to whatever plan of rigging and result writing they plan. They tried without success to hand twist INEC to reject the use but the failure of the President to assent to their new electoral bill make that impossible. Now they have resolve to setting INEC offices on fire across the country. The only reason anyone would carry out such demeaning act would be to prevent the use of the card reader; so there is no way a president and a party who is a proponent of the use of the system and stand to benefit more from transparency of the system through the use of same will act in a way that endangered the system.

The incidences of fire outbreak at various INEC offices across the country must be duly investigated and perpetrators brought to book but much more, INEC must refuse to be cowed into abandoning the use of card readers in those affected areas. If need be, election should be postponed in such areas until Smart Card Readers are available. Burning offices of INEC would not give them the victory they desire, not even setting INEC headquarters on fire would, it would only postpone the doom hovering over them.

As it has always been, in all humility,  I welcome constructive criticism to the above submission

May Nigeria Succeed!

The National leader of the All Progressives Congress ( APC ), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Thursday urged party members to work hard and ensure they deliver minimum of three million votes for President Muhammadu Buhari on Feb . 16 .

Tinubu who tasked the electorate while addressing party members and supporters at a stakeholders meeting in Ikeja said APC in the state could not afford not to deliver on the promise of overwhelming votes for the president .

The former governor of Lagos State said the president has intrinsic trust in him and party members to win resoundingly in the state , urging party men to do their best to meet and exceed expectations .

Tinubu who reiterated his commitment to Buhari ’ s re – election, said he would give his all, including spending his personal resources to ensure his victory.

“I want you our party members to go all out and vote massively for President Muhammadu Buhari .

“You must deliver at least three million votes or more to the president to show that the whole state is firmly for him .

“I have been made the co- Chairman of the APC presidential campaign committee because of the trust in me and party members to always deliver votes .

“We should justify that trust and give our best for Buhari and Osinbajo on Saturday , ” he said.

Tinubu urged party members to mobilise other residents in their neighbourhoods to vote for the president .

He challenged all members to ensure that APC wins in all the polling units across all the wards on Saturday.

The party leader said election coordinators had been appointed to mobilise votes for APC across the state , and urged them to deliver on the assignment.

Tinubu said party executive members were automatic coordinators in their respective areas , urging them to get results .

He promised that all members would be compensated based on the results they delivered in their respective areas .

Tinubu urged members to shun electoral malpractice as the party was not known for such .

The party leader also urged party members to eschew all acts of violence, but conduct themselves peacefully before , during and after the election.

He expressed confidence that the president would not only emerge victorious in the election , but would win resoundingly .

Tinubu said the governorship candidate of the party in the state , Mr Babajide Sanwoolu , would take the state to greater heights and urged residents to vote massively for him on March 2 .

He urged members to stand with Sanwoolu the same way they supported him during the last primaries.

The party leader said issues concerning the primaries had been resolved, promising all those who could not get tickets that they would be compensated with appointments .

Tinubu commended the state Deputy -Governor, Dr Idiat Adebule , for her loyalty to the party , saying that attribute was expected of every party man.

The party leader said the deputy governor stood with the party when it mattered , urging women in the party to follow her example.

According to him , the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP ) represents ineptitude , urging Nigerians to reject the party at the polls.

Also speaking , APC governorship candidate in the state Mr . Babajide Sanwo – olu said the APC was passionate and committed about a better and greater Nigeria and Lagos .

He urged residents to vote massively for Buhari on Saturday and for him on March 2 , for the delivery of more democratic dividends .

LwadLeader