…Decries tinkering of Bauchi North Senatorial District election result
The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has said that the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari in last Saturday’s presidential election is a measure of reposed confidence across the country and a confirmation of what the New York Times called “a referendum on honesty”.
The NNPP in a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by the Head, Planning, Research & Strategy, National Headquarters, Mr. Dipo Olayoku while congratulating the president, hoped that President Buhari would use the next four years of his second term to consolidate on his strong beliefs and at the same time correct some of the policies which seemed not to be resonating well with the greater number of Nigerians.
The party believed he owed it as a duty to the founding fathers of this great country, and indeed this generation and coming generations to use everything at his disposal to reconcile the badly polarized and divided nation saying that the divisions were very visible and that this may had been responsible for what would look like, low votes scored in some sections of the country, as represented by the collated results in demographic analysis of the entire result.
“By this victory, his position as the Father of the entire nation has been authenticated again, and we call, on him to use his good office to make every segment of this country have a sense of belonging. The whole country remains his constituency, and we hope this will reflect in every of his actions.
“Mr. President’s attributes which shall include but not limited to honesty, uprightness, forthrightness, and ability to say it, as it is, are next to none. This was demonstrated in his utterances at different fora that Nigerians should vote for candidates of their choice. Although this may not have gone down well with some of his party members who felt that he was not doing enough to promote his party’s candidates, however, a lot of Nigerians keyed into this doctrine of openness as a leader.
“The people of the Bauchi North Senatorial District hearkened to his call by giving our candidate, Hon. Farouq Mustapha the mandate to represent them at the Senate for the next four years. However, some people seem to have vowed to rubbish President Buhari’s good name and make people to cast doubts on his hard -earned integrity by tinkering with the mandate freely given by the good people of Bauchi North Senatorial district to Hon. Farooq Mustapha.
“It is our belief that some people are just out to cause breakdown of law and order by provoking or inciting crisis. We believe their aim is to cause mayhem, knowing full well that the good people of Bauchi detest cheating especially when it is perceived that their mandate is about to be or has been stolen. We are very happy to note that Mr. President is very conversant with the fabrics of the people of Bauchi State. When they want you as their representative, nothing can stop them. They have demonstrated this through their cult- like followership and loyalty over the years, even against all odds. They can go to any length to make their dream come through.
“For record purpose, our Party is in possession of video evidences of what transpired at Gamawa Village in Bauchi State where electoral officers were kidnapped and forced to alter results to close the gap between our candidate who was in clear lead during the collation of results. It is bizarre and against the Electoral Law that election results for Gamawa and Zaki local government areas were not declared at the polling units, but taken to Azare.
“We have decided to bring this to the attention of Mr. President and the people of Bauchi State in particular to know the shenanigans that took place in the Senatorial election in Bauchi State. We have all the evidence to take it back at the appropriate time using the instrumentality of the law. Our fear is that these agents of darkness may want to explore this ignoble route again in the March 9, 2019 Gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections. This might have consequences which may affect the peace of the State. We did our best to risk- manage the rampaging voters whose will and choice were denied.
“It is our belief that those evil men and women may be trying to set a booby trap for the next administration of President Muhammadu Buhari either to truncate its take off or ensure a turbulent take off. That is why as Patriots, we in the NNPP want Mr. President to send out a strong signal to Nigerians that he will never be part of any process to change the people’s will”, the statement said.
While congratulating the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu for a job well done so far, NNPP however advised him to show more interest in what his officers out there in the field were doing.
It continued, “All the efforts being put in his work at the National Headquarters may amount to nothing if his officers generally are not properly checked. He should put in place a more robust way of monitoring them to ensure they don’t drag his image in the mud.
“It may be a situation of avoidable complacency if the management of INEC at the headquarters assumes that the State Resident Electoral Commissioners and other strategic officers deployed at the operational areas cannot be compromised as such in a corrupt and violent prone society. Aside from the issue of logistics problem earlier noted, it is open that the Commission recovered quickly and moved on with elections. Unfortunately the whole process became a national disgrace during voting and collation of votes cast”.
The statement further said, “Mr. President, yes election may have divided us but right now Nigerian state should unite us at this time. It is to us that your first tenure ending in two months’ time has been very turbulent in your effort to stem corruption, the Boko Haram insurgency, the herdsmen menace, the alleged Islamization agenda and general insecurity in the country.
“We sincerely wish to encourage our dear President to fall back to the concept of allowing posterity to judge his leadership in Nigeria thereafter the next four years. It is our belief that the road map to move forward should involve the following; 1.) Ensuring a robust executive bill to amend our electoral processes.
2.) Start now to prepare for a credible and transparent election using electronic voting completely.
3.) The agitation for a restructured Nigeria polity should attract Mr. President’s attention.
4.) Issues of insecurity must be tackled head on.
5.) There should be a robust package and sustainable economic policies that will make life more bearable for Nigerians.
6.) Efforts should be geared towards enhanced energy supply for domestic and industrial use to engender industrialization in order to provide jobs for the large army of unemployed Nigerians especially youth.
7.) Conscious efforts by Mr. President, both in words and actions, to dispel the fear of an Islamisation agenda.
“Finally, we congratulate Nigerians for a successful Presidential election and urge everyone to gear up for the March 9, 2019 Governorship and House of Assembly elections. We should all avoid actions that could disrupt the peace and tranquility in our great country. We have no any other country to call our own. Let us work together to make Nigeria great once again”.
Photo: National Chairman of NNPP, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam.
Send your news, press releases/articles to augustinenwadinamuo@yahoo.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @ptreporters and on Facebook on facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526, 08053908817.
