2019 ELECTION RIGGING CLAIMS: Buhari group replies Peter Obi

A pro-President Muhammadu Buhari group in South East under the aegis of Zikist-Buharist-Movement (ZBM), has faulted the election rigging claim by the vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi.

Obi had in a statement on Sunday claimed that there were high level election rigging during the 2019 general elections and said that no nation can move forward when its leaders come to power through rigged polls.

“The fraud which characterised this year’s election has greatly undermined the country’s democracy, its future and has significantly damaged the ongoing fight against all vices and tainted the integrity of those responsible,” Obi added.

But responding in a statement issued in Enugu on Monday by the group’s secretary, Barr. Godwin Onwusi, ZBM told Obi that his party PDP lost the presidential election not because of rigging but due to the use of card readers, which it said do not allow manipulations.

ZBM said, “The fraud and violence are not substantial enough to vitiate the general election. We understand where His Excellency, Peter Obi is coming from, an era when as Governor in 2011, the then President Goodluck Jonathan got millions of votes in Anambra, Imo, Abia, Ebonyi and Enugu states. That era is gone, thanks to the ubiquitous Card Reader, which makes rigging at collation center cumbersome.

“May we ask Peter Obi, what their pillar of support, ex-president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo could have done if his main strongholds – Kano and Bauchi are threatened and hanging on the cliff-hanger of inconclusive elections?”

On the argument that the election could not have been free and with the number of votes Buhari scored in Kano, Katsina, and Bauchi ZBM said:

“Obi should recall that Buhari has a treasure Vote-Bank of 12 million voters, which since his first outing in 2003 presidential election had surfaced, and resurfaced in 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019.

“It’s possible Obi was one of those who thought Atiku will erode the Aminu Kano tradition in the North, which Buhari not only inherited, but epitomise. It is a tradition of integrity quotient and prudence management of public finance. Atiku is deficit on this tradition and the votes reflected it.

READ ALSO: PDP claims Buhari has confessed to rigging presidential elections

“ZBM understanding is that Obi is one of those who failed to reason that the day His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar was rigged was when the Ohaneze Ndigbo, Afenifere, Middle Belt Forum and PANDEF of the South South, adopted Atiku as their son, hence exercised him from his kinsmen and neighbour in the North East and North West respectively. Our tradition frowns at adoption of someone’s son without permission.”

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