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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