Buhari alleges rigging of election

Presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd), has alleged that ballot papers with thumbprints were distributed by air nationwide on the eve of the presidential election. Buhari expressed concern about what he called the nocturnal movement of presidential ballot papers that were taken to polling centres. Speaking on Saturday after casting his vote at the Serikin Yara Ward at the Kofar Baru polling unit in Daura, his home town, Buhari said that he had facts from impeccable sources. Buhari stated that he had reports of planes distributing ballot papers with thumbprints to states across the country. “One of such planes came earlier this morning to Katsina airport, and our people were driven away from the airport before the consignment was off loaded and driven straight to the Government House,” he said. He added that the CPC had been vigilant and had monitored movements at the Independent National Electoral Commission’s headquarters in the state to ensure that only authorised materials were moved in or out. “People are determined and they went and surround INEC and they are making sure that whatever went in or out of INEC is one which is being supervised by our representatives and the presidential election monitoring teams,” he said. Buhari said that his party had learnt from the national assembly elections that the rigging would be sophisticated and had mobilised its supporters to be vigilant. “Our people now know it’s up to them that they have literate and committed agents from the polling unit up to the collation centre,” he said. Buhari said that it was the responsibility of young people as major stakeholders in the Nigerian project to ensure that the elections were free and fair. “If they allow the ruling party to mess them up, it is they who will suffer for the next 40 years,” he said. The CPC presidential candidate, however, said that he would not go to court to challenge the outcome of the election. He stressed that if he was taken to court, his party would rise to defend him. Buhari had a difficult time wading through the crowd of supporters that had thronged his Serkin Yara polling unit to watch him vote. Several people, especially the elderly, waited patiently on long queues for voting to start. By Olamilekan Lartey Courtesy Of: Punch