Alleged election rigging: Atiku, PDP leaders show video proofs to Abdulsalami, Kukah, others

Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku
Abubakar, and the National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche
Secondus, have shown video clips of alleged rigging of the February
23 presidential and National Assembly elections in the country to
members of the National Peace Committee headed by a former Head of
State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd.).

They presented the videos in Abuja on Thursday night, Saturday
PUNCH reports.

Among those who watched the clips with the former head of state
were Cardinal John Onaiyekan and Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah.

PDP members who were at the meeting, which held at the Asokoro,
Abuja residence of the former vice-president, included the PDP
vice-presidential candidate, Peter Obi; President of the Senate,
who is also the Director-General of the PDP Presidential Campaign
Council, Bukola Saraki; and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.

It was gathered that Abdulsalami had been trying to meet with
Atiku and his team since the announcement of the election results
by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission,
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, in Abuja in the early hours of Wednesday.

Announcing the results, Yakubu had said that the presidential
candidate of the All Progressives Congress, President Muhammadu
Buhari, won with 15,191,847 votes as against 11,262,978 polled by
Atiku of the PDP.

The former vice-president and his party had rejected the results
and said they would seek redress in court.

At the meeting with the Abdulsalami-led committee on Thursday
night, investigations by one of our correspondents showed that
Secondus narrated to the NPC members how the members of the PDP
were allegedly molested and denied the opportunity to cast their
votes in many states.

It was also gathered that Abdulsalami and members of his
committee were shown video clips of how soldiers allegedly
brutalised PDP members in some states and the sacking of some
polling units by thugs suspected to be loyal to the ruling party
without the security agents who were present taking any action.

The video clips were said to have been watched by other NPC
members in attendance.

A source, who was at the meeting said, “At a point during the
meeting, we decided to show video clips of how soldiers helped the
APC to rig the elections in some states. We also showed them how
security agents looked the other way when thugs invaded polling and
coalition centres in some states.

“We asked the retired General whether that was how he used the
military to conduct the 1999 elections. But instead of replying, he
laughed and laughed. I think he was trying to tell us that he is a
different person or something like that.

“We told him how the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, did
not pretend during his transition period that he wanted to be the
sole candidate of all the five registered political parties then.
We now said that President Buhari ought to have told Nigerians that
he wanted to be the sole candidate so that we would have known how
to address the matter from the outset, instead of using the
military to achieve what he could not have achieved by claiming to
be the sole candidate.”

It was also learnt that Obi, who is a former governor of Anambra
State, said he had to leave his home in his state on the eve of the
election because of the activities of security men who allegedly
terrorised his area.

It was gathered that Atiku told the NPC members that he was
surprised that they did not do anything despite all the issues
raised by his party after he joined President Buhari to sign the
peace agreement.

He was said to have claimed that the country was already divided
and that he regretted signing the peace agreement because of the
events that unfolded after.

“At a time, the Waziri (Atiku) became emotional. He said he
regretted signing the Peace Agreement because members of the
committee did not attend to complaints by the PDP after its signing
and before the conduct of the elections,” another source added.