The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Buhari’s group

  • Buhari’s group urges EU, AU to caution Atiku

    The Buhari Campaign Organisation (BCO) has urged the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU) to prevail upon the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to jettison his plan of going to court to challenge President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election.

    In separate letters addressed to the heads of EU and AU Observation Missions in Nigeria, the support group noted that the international bodies must act fast to save the country’s democracy from what it described as Atiku’s inequitable conduct despite the reports of fairness in the just concluded polls by the international observers.

    In the letters made available to reporters in Abuja yesterday by its Director of Communications and Strategic Planning, Mallam Gidado Ibrahim, the BCO said Atiku ought to have congratulated Buhari instead of yielding to PDP’s politics of bitterness.

    The group noted that Buhari’s magnanimity in victory, which was demonstrated in his appeal to his supporters not to humiliate the opposition, was enough reason for Atiku to shed his obstinacy and congratulate the President on his re-election.

    It stated: “We are writing to inform you of the undemocratic tendencies of the presidential candidate of the main opposition party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, who has chosen to take the electoral process in Nigeria backward after a peaceful and credible presidential and National Assembly elections conducted penultimate Saturday.

    “In spite of reports by foreign observers acknowledging the polls as free, fair and peaceful, the opposition party and its candidate have chosen to discredit the entire process and make the Observation Missions look as if they are biased in their assessment of the just-concluded presidential poll. Apart from blatantly refusing to congratulate the winner of the said poll, President Muhammadu Buhari, the PDP and its candidate have taken the battle to court apparently to cause distractions with a view to slowing down the wheels of governance in the country.

    “The PDP is still inciting the Nigerian public against the government of the day, irrespective of the fact that President Buhari had been magnanimous in victory. He has pledged to run an all-inclusive government and has even urged us, his supporters, not to gloat or humiliate the opposition, an enjoinder we have adhered strictly to the letter. We deem it fit to draw your attention to this brazen attempt to frustrate the democratic process, hoping that you will intervene by calling the PDP and its presidential candidate to order and ensure that the tenets of democracy are adhered to in the ongoing electoral process in Nigeria.

    “Atiku should follow former President Goodluck Jonathan’s example. Nobody’s life should be sacrificed for any politician’s ambition. He should abide by the agreement signed by all presidential candidates with the National Peace Committee to accept the results of the just-concluded presidential poll in good faith. Nigeria has in the past witnessed enough shedding of the blood of innocent Nigerians. If Atiku wants to help Nigerians, he should work with the Buhari-led government for a prosperous nation. He should not set Nigeria aflame with his inordinate ambition and insatiable taste for power.”

  • Atiku, PDP planning to infiltrate INEC to rig 2019 polls, says Buhari’s group

    THE Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) said yesterday that it has unearthed plans by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar to infiltrate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by sponsoring its supporters to work within the commission as electoral officers.

    BMO also said the opposition was deploying massive resources to rig next month’s presidential election.

    The organisation said in a statement issued by its chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and secretary, Cassidy Madueke, that the plans of the opposition “to subvert the will of the people”, is the recent recruitment of a former INEC Chairman known to have presided over the worse election in Nigeria’s recent political history.

    The group said the rigging plot also involves spending huge sums of money on police personnel and election officials in many parts of the country. It added that the opposition was also plotting to infiltrate the electoral body with their supporters.

    The group asked INEC to be vigilant and ensure that PDP supporters were not recruited as electoral officers.

    “With their campaign daily losing steam, PDP has also resorted to accusing everyone directly or remotely connected to President Muhammadu Buhari of corruption; after realising that Nigerians are not buying any of their Dubai strategy of lies.

    “Their leaders had been working on this plan for a while and had consciously been raising all sorts of allegations and attacking national institutions involved in the electoral process to divert attention from their devious agenda.

    Read also: Dogara warns over non-assent to Electoral Act Amendment Bill

    “Part of the plot is to discredit INEC’s new election guidelines, which included simultaneous accreditation and voting, and which also barred collation officers from making or receiving calls on election day.

    “This same style was successfully test-run in all bye-elections in recent months, including those won by PDP candidates, but the party did not see anything wrong with it until the commission insisted that it would be used during the next elections,” the BMO said.

    BMO noted that PDP is also working on infiltrating INEC by embedding its supporters among ad-hoc electoral officials as part of its rigging plan.

    It consequently advised the Commission to be cautious in its recruitment plan for the general election.

    “We want to place Nigerians on notice that they should be at alert and not allow PDP elements at all levels to subvert the will of the electorate.

    “There is also a need for the election management body to properly scrutinise ad-hoc staff to be recruited for Election Day duty as well as pay more than a passing attention to its officials in the run up to the February 16 election.

    “This is because PDP, a party that is known for electoral manipulation, and which has a lot of dirty schemes in its kitty to rig the process in favour of its Presidential candidate, needs to be put under close surveillance,” they said.

    They dismissed insinuations by the opposition that President Buhari and the APC to rig the election, saying the President has no reason to rig the Presidential election, saying any fear by the opposition was completely misplaced.

  • Buhari’s group accuses PDP candidate of breaching peace accord

    THE Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) yesterday accused the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar of contravening the tenets of the peace accord he signed ahead of the 2019 elections by inciting his followers across the country to anarchy.

    In a statement issued by its chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, the group asked former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar and other members of the National Peace Committee to call PDP and its presidential candidate to order, saying the action of the former Vice President “is a blantant exhibition of bad faith”.

    The group said: “When the former vice president and his party failed to show up for the agreement signing ceremony on a flimsy excuse, we raised an alarm that it was because they were not prepared to commit themselves to terms of the accord.

    Read also: Catholic priests anoint Jime for Benue governor

    “Rather than focus attention on convincing Nigerians that Atiku Abubakar could do better than what President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have done in only three and half years, they have resorted to character assassination and inflammatory comments.

    “It all started with pushing lies and false news to paint the President and his family in bad light. Now, the PDP presidential candidate is subtly instigating his supporters to anarchy, having realised that majority of Nigerians are favourably disposed to re-electing the president.

    “So for us at BMO, it is not surprising because this is what they had in mind when they initially refused to endorse the agreement.”

    The group added that Atiku, who few months ago, said he would focus on issues, has in recent times been launching personal attacks on the President and government institutions, adding that this is being done with a view to discrediting institutions that would be involved in the forthcoming elections.

    “With about a month to the presidential polls, the opposition candidate has, directly and through proxies, been attacking President Buhari, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Police.

    “The plan is clearly to discredit the president and relevant institutions in the run up to the election as well as instigate opposition supporters to resort to violence even before the first ballot is cast.

    “Or how can anyone describe a situation where a former vice president would boldly, without facts, tell PDP social media influencers that President Buhari is bent on stealing votes on February 16.

    “He also alleged that the president was out to manipulate the electoral process by ensuring that ‘his relative’ collates the results, even after INEC had cleared the air on Amina Zakari and her role at the National Collation Centre.

    “Does it not amount to paving way for violence once it is clear that the outcome of the election does not favour him, as it is obvious from the manner the PDP is losing key members and its campaign losing steam?”

  • Surrender yourself to police, Buhari’s group tells Melaye

    ONE of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s support groups, the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO), has asked the Senator representing Kogi West, Dino Melaye, to surrender himself to police operatives and end the siege to his Abuja home.

    The police had been laying siege to the senator’s Maitama home for the past four days in a bid to effect a warrant of arrest for what police spokesman Jimoh Moshood described as a case of “criminal conspiracy and attempted culpable homicide” against the federal lawmaker.

    In a statement signed by its chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and secretary, Cassidy Madueke, the group said surrendering himself to the police operatives would be the best way to end the siege that is capable of sending wrong signals about the political elite to the local and international observers.

    “For starters, as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Melaye swore to an oath to uphold the laws of the land, but for more than five months, he has failed to honour an invitation over the alleged shooting of an on-duty police officer, Sergeant Danjuma Saliu, by some armed men in his convoy on July 19, 2018 in Kogi State.

    “This is in spite of pledging on national television few days after the incident that he would show up at the state police command to show that their account was ‘false and illogical’.

    “In that interview, the senator insisted that the police account was wrong and in fact, accused the police of shooting at his convoy of 20 vehicles on his way to a scheduled event.

    “It is sad that at a time that Nigerians expect Melaye to show a good example, he has opted to play up religious sentiment by quoting a passage in the Holy Bible that has nothing to do with the situation at hand.

    “The issue at stake is the near-fatal shooting of a police operative by men who were said to be in his convoy. So, there is enough reason for him to clear his name as a Federal lawmaker.”