We have evidence that the presidential election was rigged –Buhari

Maybe we can start by asking you, sir, about issues after the presidential election. What are your plans for the gubernatorial election coming up on Tuesday? Are you strategising or are you lamenting what happened during the presidential contest? It’s natural for one to lament but we have already spoken to our colleagues on the […]

Maybe we can start by asking you, sir, about issues after the presidential election. What are your plans for the gubernatorial election coming up on Tuesday? Are you strategising or are you lamenting what happened during the presidential contest?

It’s natural for one to lament but we have already spoken to our colleagues on the process of going to the tribunal over what transpired between CPC officials and INEC, when we discovered that the CPC was programmed to lose 40% in a number of states. Having uncovered that and INEC owned up, we demanded that for the rest of the states, the same exercise should prevail so that we can make sure that all the recordings are correct.

The INEC chairman has spoken of ‘honest mistakes’ only in Katsina and Kano.

It’s not true. He asked our agent to write a letter. The letter was written by the party and taken to him. He said he will consider the representation before he announced the result. He went in for a meeting. When he returned, he announced the results without referring to our representation. When did they decide about the complaints we made and they said we should bring this Form ECE 8, to reconcile it with their manual register and check up with their computer. They haven’t done it.

But you said the CPC agents checked and signed whatever result was announced, we mean at the lower levels.

When they are at certain levels, say from the polling booth to subsequent collation centres, they signed what they saw in appropriate document. That is the document we are asking should be crosschecked in all states just as they did in Katsina and Kano and uncovered this 40% and 26% deficit respectively. That’s what we insisted on and they said we should bring a letter to that effect and we did but they proceeded and announced the result without doing the exercise.

Would this be the main basis for challenging the election at the tribunal?

It’s part of it. We said and it has been widely reported by the media, that in the South East and South South, our supporters were disenfranchised and we have documents to prove it.

Where would all this leave you in terms of the coming election, because we have heard that your supporters are tearing their voters cards amidst complaint that it does not matter they should hold the cards because their votes will not count?

We have written and we have spoken on the radio to all the states and the message is being aired repeatedly. We have told them that this is exactly the trap that the PDP has set. They want our supporters to be upset by the level of rigging. We have been telling them to keep their cards and to come out en masse in the next election and vote and reports show that they have been responding positively to our advice.

Earlier, some of your aides were suggesting that you were going out for a fresh campaign, for rallies in some places, but it has gone all quiet. What happened?

There is the question of security. It started with Suleja. Our gubernatorial candidate there told us the police had mounted roadblocks and wouldn’t allow our supporters from other senatorial districts to cross to Suleja and meet us. So, there was no need for us to go and not meet with our supporters from other parts of the state. I never left this house, but a newspaper wrote a headline that the police barricaded me on the way and prevented me from going. For the subsequent ones, today (Friday, April 22) is a holy day for the christians as well as the muslims; ditto Sunday. It will be insensitive of me to go on campaign when people are busy in churches and in mosques. This is why we stopped. But it is to advantage, because we found out that there is heavy deployment of the police and the military and intimidation has started. I just got a call from Zamfara that one person has been shot. There is an attempt by governors in some of the states to bring out policemen and soldiers to intimidate voters.

Government says it is deploying heavy security to protect the people, to provide intensive security, but you are now calling it intimidation. How do you reconcile the two situations?

This is why I asked you to get the report of what happened in Zamfara.  Why would soldiers be deployed four days to an election they are said to be there to protect? And they started shooting people. This is what you can do to restrain the government: when you report it, government will respond. Why should soldiers go there and start shooting people when election is still days away?

They would say they are trying to keep law and order.

How? Four days to the election; how?

You said after this election there would be no more contest by you. Are you standing by the decision? We suspect there would be pressure on you, particularly considering how things turned out to be after last week’s presidential election.

I am standing by my word. I am not getting younger at all.

What will happen to the CPC? The CPC is the General and the General is the CPC

I don’t want the party to fizzle out just because I say I am not going to contest. This was part of why we had a meeting after the presidential election. We met with stakeholders, including chairmen of the party, candidates who have won elections and candidates who lost elections, and so on. After that, we met with the Presidential Campaign Council for another five hours. We met to evaluate the elections that have been done and to prepare for the remaining elections. We want our party to endure.

What will be your role in terms of you no longer going to contest but trying to strengthen your party?

I expect you to get a hold on our party’s constitution and see the role of the chairman of the Board of Trustees. I will be working by the rule and trying to go as far as possible.

There is talk about an all-inclusive government. What will be your response if you are called to participate in it?

It’s too early for me to answer the question. I will wait till after the Tuesday election and then our case which should come up in three weeks’ time

But that case can drag on for years. As you said, you spent 50 months questioning the 2003 and 2007 elections. To say you won’t decide till the case is concluded is like saying you will not participate at all because the case could drag on and on.

I said we have to wait for the elections and their results and see how we will articulate our petition and present it to the Tribunal before I make up my mind

You condemned the violence that followed the presidential election. There is a deep disconnect in the North. Even the previously untouchable symbols of authorities, including traditional rulers, have been targetted.

Yes, and it is something, honestly, that you have to investigate. It is somehow unprecedented. This kind of thing only happened during the First Republic. Why is it rearing its head now? It was so spontaneous, no matter what anybody says. People torched symbols of authority and party leadership. It has local content. The people know people who, by convention, should not be partisan politicians. And for people to be honest to the situation, they should do investigative journalism and not take things as they look on the surface.

Government is saying maybe you have a hand in it. I heard the Minister of Information saying negative mobilisation and campaign has a hand in it.

Did you ask him to describe what is negative campaign? From the president downwards, every politician was saying go and cast your vote and make sure your vote counts. The chairman of INEC himself said it is perfectly in order for you to cast your vote and see that it counts or to go away, as long as they are not unruly.

Your convoy was attacked at a time. How did you feel when you discovered that what you were hearing on radio…?

This is what the ruling party does not want to hear. They don’t want to hear that I whom they say was inciting people to violence was a subject of attack.

What exactly happened to your convoy?

I wasn’t in the convoy; but people know my vehicles and it was in Jaji. I flew from Katsina to Abuja but my convoy moved by road and it was attacked. But the ruling party is saying it’s Buhari inciting people to violence. Unfortunately, some people who participated were shouting ‘Sai Buhari’. That is why they are saying I am the one asking them to go on the rampage.

Sir, are you surprised that foreign observers are giving the election a clean bill of health?

I am disappointed and I have been saying it. I told a foreign observer to go and find out what happened in the South South and South East during the presidential election. Already, Britain and America have started casting doubt as they continue to find out what happened in those two geopolitical regions.  The observers have not been credible this time.

A lot of people are saying that you are now the de-facto leader of the North; but they say also that the result has divided the country into two. How do you view this?

It is a very disappointing conclusion. If INEC were conscientious and intends Nigerians to believe them, they would have been concerned about what happened in the South South and South East. They should have found out how people were being disenfranchised. In the North here, people voted freely and their votes counted. But it was a different thing in the South South and South East. They know it and the facts are coming out now. I will tell you this: the difficult terrain in the South South and the Mambilla plateau makes movement tedious, but the result from Rivers State in the South South was the first to arrive Abuja. Also, the result shows over 90% voter turnout. And some of the foreign election observers say there was never more than 40% voter turnout anywhere. Why didn’t the observers raise this to the government? And it is what we are going to do. We have to do this within the limited time, within the next three weeks, and we are working very hard on it.

What is your take on President Jonathan comparing what is happening now to the run-up to the 1967 civil war?

I don’t like to comment on what this president says. You remember the bomb blast of October 1, last year? He said he knew who did it. The people who did it said they were the ones who did it. He insisted they were not the ones. Now, he is talking about civil war. We fought the civil war. I don’t know what clue he has of the civil war.