The camp of former
President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday lambasted the All Progressives Congress
(APC) campaign council of President Muhammadu Buhari for accusing him of
rigging the 2015 general elections and verbal attack on the United States and
other countries.
Their reaction was
contained in a statement signed by Reno Omokri, former special assistant to
Jonathan.
He said Festus Keyamo,
spokesman of the Muhammadu Buhari campaign, claimed that “the figures
attributed to the PDP were inflated in many places, especially in the
South-South, to save the face of the past President (Goodluck Jonathan) and to
reduce the margin of his defeat.”
Omokri noted that the statement
casts doubt on the sanity of Mr Keyamo, as well as his wild and reckless
statement directed at the US Ambassador and other respected diplomats.
He said: “In both the 2011
elections and the 2015 polls, former President Jonathan received praises for conducting
the most credible elections in Nigeria’s history bar none.
“On April 18 2011, former
Botswana President and head of the Commonwealth Election Observer Group, Mr.
Festus Mogae, said: The April 2011 elections marked a genuine celebration of
democracy in Africa’s most populous country and a key member of the
Commonwealth. Previously held notions that Nigeria can only hold flawed
elections are now being discarded and this country can now shake off that
stigma and redeem its image.”
“In 2015, Dr Bakili Muluzi,
former President of Malawi, who led the Commonwealth Observer Group, said: The
conduct of the Presidential and National Assembly elections was credible,
peaceful, transparent and reflected the will of the people of Nigeria.”
“It must be noted that the
major complaint that the Commonwealth Observer Groups had, both in 2011 and
2015, was the propensity for violence by the candidacy and supporters of
then-candidate Muhammadu Buhari.
“Mr. Keyamo may also want
to note that voting in the South-South was done largely by PVCs and card
readers and it is virtually impossible to rig with such technology.
“We also wish to remind the
fallacious and garrulous Mr. Keyamo that of the 31,746,490 accredited voters in
the 2015 election, 13,536,311 (42.6%), voted without biometric accreditation.
Of this number, 10,184,720 votes (75%) were from states won by the candidate of
the All Progressives Congress, Muhammadu Buhari.
“The above facts clearly
show who between Muhammadu Buhari and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan should be accused
of rigging.
“The fact of the matter is
that Dr. Jonathan is known as The Face of Democracy in Africa and is famous for
the Jonathan Doctrine: “My political ambition is not worth the blood of any
citizen”. He is not known to threaten to soak people in blood!
“It should be noted that
the standard in the conduct of elections over the last four years have
deteriorated sharply, with “inconclusive elections” being the order of the day,
whereby persons who win the majority of the votes are sidelined in favour of
the ruling party candidates.
“In fact, in a Freudian
slip on January 27, 2019, Mr. Buhari confessed his role in the rigging of the
Osun election when he said:: “I know by remote control through so many sources
how we managed to maintain the party (APC) in power in this state.”
“Even worse, under this
dispensation, foreign election observers are threatened with promises that they
would leave Nigeria in “body bags”.
“Mr. Keyamo is also urged
not to destroy Nigeria’s long-standing relationships with her valued friends.
He should remember that when his masters are sick, or in need of loans or want
to educate their children, they turn to these same democracies that he is now
insulting.”
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