GOVERNOR Sule Lamido of Jigawa State said that the presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the last general election, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), confessed that all political parties engaged in rigging elections.
Lamido said this on Sunday at the Emir of Dutse’s palace when he and the Katsina State governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Shema, paid a courtesy visit to the emir, Dr Nuhu Muhammad Sunusi.
Alhaji Sule Lamido was reacting to Buhari’s recent comment on free and fair elections, saying that it was Buhari who taught politicians how to rig elections
According to him, “when Major-General Buhari took over power from President Shehu Shagari in 1983, he categorically told the world that the coup was carried out because all the political parties engaged in the act of rigging and other forms of election malpractices.”
The governor maintained that “in his first speech, Major-General Buhari stated that not only the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) rigged, but all the parties rigged elections according to their strength at the constituency.
Lamido explained that Buhari’s speech was no more than teaching the politician how to use their influence and power to rig elections at any place they are opportune to do.
Accordig to Lamido, Buhari had no moral right to accuse anybody of rigging, because his party also rigged elections in the last general election at the area it was strong enough to do so.
However, Lamido maintained that no matter how deeply elections were rigged, the elected political leaders had people’s mandate and since 1999, they had been doing their best to meet the aspirations of their people.
No comments:
Post a Comment