Fayose Opens Up On Why He Opposes Buhari

Following his death wish for the All Progressives Congress
(APC) presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the
Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, has said he has nothing
personal against the former head of state.
The governor, who spoke on Thursday through a statement
issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, said he is
not wishing Buhari dead as widely believed in many quarters,
but maintained that the APC presidential flag bearer is too old
to govern a complex country like Nigeria.
Fayose explained that he is opposed to the emergence of
Buhari as president because Nigerians do not deserve a leader
that will govern by proxy.
The Ekiti governor said his experience as chairman of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ad hoc committee which
shopped for a suitable presidential candidate for the party in
the run-up to the 2007 presidential election informed his
opposition to Buhari’s candidature.
He revealed that his committee did not recommend the late
President Umaru Yar’ Adua, whom he said initially, rejected
the offer before he (Yar’Adua) was allegedly opposed by
former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Fayose said the criticisms trailing his mode of campaign for
the re-election of the PDP candidate, President Goodluck
Jonathan, are unnecessary, accusing the APC leaders
promoting Buhari’s candidature as insincere.
The governor, who said he owed nobody any apology for
exposing the hypocrisy of APC leaders, accused them of
placing personal interests far above national interests.
He alleged that the APC had not only packaged lies and tried
to foist such on Nigerians, but had compromised the
Independent National Electoral Commission to rig the
elections if it had held on February 14.
Going down the memory lane on how the late Yar’Adua was
preferred by Obasanjo, Fayose said he does not want the
events that took place in the PDP presidential primary in
December 2006 to be re-enacted in 2015.
Fayose said: “I remember then as the ad hoc chairman of the
PDP committee that shopped for the presidential candidate to
replace former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a crop of
suitable, brilliant, healthy and competent northern politicians
in the PDP were shortlisted by me for Obasanjo to pick from,
but he overruled the list and asked me to contact the late
Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua because he preferred him.
“In fairness to the late president, he objected to the offer on
health ground, but Obasanjo insisted that he must be the
president.

Buhari Speaks At Chatham House, As Rented Hecklers Clash With APC Supporters Outside Venue

Muhammad Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) today delivered a widely
anticipated speech at the Chatham House in London,
affirming his readiness to run and win the postponed
2015 presidential elections.
Mr. Buhari arrived at the Chatham House venue of the event
accompanied by several APC figures, including former Governor
Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the party’s national chairman John Odigie
Oyegun, and Governors Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and
Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State as well as former Ekiti state
governor, Kayode Fayemi.
Buhari taking notes during the Q & A at Chatham
House talk
The event had its dramatic sideshow as a group of Nigerians
sponsored by the Nigerian government showed up to heckle Mr.
Buhari in order to disrupt his talk.
Mr. Buhari’s appearance to give the lecture squelched a media
frenzy driven by claims by Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti
State to the effect that the APC’s presidential candidate was
very ill and hospitalized in a UK hospital. Several party officials
had dismissed the speculations, insisting that those spreading
them, including Mr. Fayose, were desperate to use such
insidious schemes to slow the APC’s political momentum.
Buhari and Rotimi Amaechi beofre the talk at Chatham
House
Mr. Buhari, a retired army general, looked fit and healthy and
made a few jokes in response to the rumors about his health.
He said he had received calls from Maiduguri that a woman was
in tears, thinking he had died. He said his doctors had declared
him fit and vowed to return to Nigeria to lead his party’s “final
onslaught” against the ruling People’s Democratic Party.
The APC candidate took notes and stood up during parts of the
event as he responded to questions posed by participants
during the session.
Prior to Mr. Buhari’s arrival to give his speech, a group of
protesters reportedly hired by President Goodluck Jonathan’s
campaign stood outside the venue chanting anti-Buhari songs.
SaharaReporters had revealed that Mr. Jonathan’s campaign
had spent $20,000 to hire a group of Nigerians in the UK to
stage protests against Mr. Buhari at today’s talk. As the event
proceeded inside, members of the APC in the UK mobilized to
the scene to confront the hecklers and support their
candidate. The verbal clash between the two groups created a
tense atmosphere at the venue.
Officers of the UK Metropolitan police later patrolled the area to
calm down the feuding camps.

Credit:Sahara Reporters

Fani-Kayode Counters President Jonathan, Says Ekiti Rigging Tape Authentic

Contrary to President Goodluck Jonathan’s dismissal of the Ekiti rigging audio recording as a fabrication that is not worth his attention, the spokesperson for his campaign, Femi Fani-Kayode has admitted that the tape is genuine but that the characters involved in the meeting captured in the recording were not discussing how to rig the 2014 governorship election in Ekiti state.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja, Mr. Fani-Kayode said his team had listened to and reviewed the recording and that it came to the conclusion that the opposition All Progressives Congress turned fact on its head by claiming that Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state; former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro; and the Minister of Police Affairs, Jelili Adesiyan, who featured in the recording, planned how to rig the election.
“We have listened to the audio clip and we make bold to say that the discussion that took place in it did not make any mention of any form of rigging in the Ekiti state governorship election and neither did it contain any evidence of any conspiracy to rig,” he said.
Mr. Fani-Kayode also said rather than attempting to orchestrate rigging, what the audio clip clearly revealed was Governor Fayose expressing concerns that a military commander was not acting on information about illegal movement of weapons into certain parts of the state.
“The Governor and others were apparently worried that safety of the voters and INEC officials could be compromised if security measures were not strictly enforced,” he said.
Mr Fani-Kayode’s admission of the authenticity of the tape is another chapter in the series of contradictory responses from the ruling party and those at the centre of the vote rigging plot.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, last Friday, Mr. Jonathan said he would not investigate the authenticity of the audio recording because it was a “fabrication.”
“It’s all fabrications. Why should I investigate things that are not real?” he asked.
Using forensic analysis that compared the voices in the recording with public record samples of the individuals in the recording, Guardian Consulting, The New York-based security firm, that helped authenticate the recordings, confirmed that the tape was genuine.
“The voices from the recording were subjected to a Forensic Voice Frequency Comparison against known samples and were found to match to a 98 per cent degree of certainty,” the firm said.
Mr Jonathan’s dismissal of the tape as a fabrication came after Mr Obanikoro denied taking part in the meeting and threatened to sue PREMIUM TIMES and Sahara Reporters for their vigorous reporting on the matter.
Mr. Adesiyan confessed that the recording was genuine but that it was more of an altercation between Mr. Fayose and Mr. Momoh after the former accused the later of favouring the then governor of the state, Kayode Fayemi.
“Fayose accused the General who supervised the Ekiti election of taking bribe from Fayemi and APC, that was two days before the election. They called me because they said the General disarmed policemen and I told him to allow the policemen to do their job,” he told the Sunday Punch newspaper.
After initially claiming his voice was manipulated using speech software such as Natural Voices, Mr. Fayose later admitted during a political event in Ekiti that it was his voice that was captured in the tape but claimed he was rebuking Mr. Momoh for favouring the APC.
“If you listen to the tape about military rigging in Ekiti. Listen to the tape you will see that I was the one accusing the army of compromise. Listen, take time to listen. But they would come back with propaganda and saying it all as if the whole world of propaganda belongs to them,” he said.

Counter Allegation
While challenging the APC to do a critical content analysis of the discussions in the audio clip, Mr. Fani-Kayode said it was the APC that rigged the governorship election in Osun state.
“During the course of those elections, some of their agents gathered in secret locations where they thumb-printed ballot papers in favor of their governorship candidate, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola,” he said.
Mr. Fani Kayode also played a video tape he claimed proved the APC rigged the election in Osun state.
“It is ironic that instead of purging itself of its own insatiable appetite for rigging and cheating, the APC, through its Presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, chose to call a press conference in which he alleged that our leaders were ordering soldiers to rig in Ekiti state.
“This is a clear case of the pot calling the kettle black,” he said.
APC, Buhari calling for violence At his press conference, Mr. Fani-Kayode also accused the APC and its presidential candidate of veiled attempts to instigate violence in the country, while also undermining the nation’s armed forces.
“It is now very clear to us that the APC is determined to cause security breaches in the next few weeks. This has been confirmed by their vigorous campaign of calumny against the military and their consistent demand that soldiers must not be deployed for security surveillance at the polling booths in the forthcoming elections,” he said.
Mr. Fani-Kayode also alleged what he termed subtle threat of violence by Mr. Buhari at an APC leadership meeting in Abuja on Tuesday.
“General Buhari said that the patience of the APC and its leaders were on test. One wonders what he means by that and what he and his supporters intend to do once that patience runs out.
“In an AFP news report of Friday, February 6, 2015, he was asked if he would accept the outcome of the presidential election no matter how unfavourable. Listen to his answer: “I am not going to lose; so I won’t answer that question.”
“Again, only yesterday, Wednesday, February 18, 2015, in an interview on ARISE Television, General Buhari was asked what his reaction would be if he loses the election. His answer was: “We shall see.”
“As far as we are concerned, these are ominous and subtle threats to unleash violence on the Nigerian people and all those that he perceives are his enemies in the event of his losing the election,” he said.
Mr. Fani-Kayode said Mr. Buhari has succeeded in inflaming the destructive passion of his supporters in the northern part of the country on many occasions in the past.
“We recall his unacceptable remarks on May 15, 2012 when he said “if what happened in 2011 should happen again in 2015, the dog and the baboon would be soaked in blood”.
“We witnessed the orgy of violence that they unleashed shortly after the announcement of the results of the 2011 presidential election, which the Sheik Lemu Committee, in its report to the Federal Government, said was caused by Buhari’s inflammatory statements.
“We recall with sadness the massacre of some of our vibrant youth corps members who participated in the 2011 election as INEC’s ad-hoc staff in Bauchi State.
“We are concerned that the same thing may happen again given General Buhari’s divisive and inciting comments coupled with the APC’s violent disposition,” Mr. Fani-Kayode said.
He said the attempt by the APC to discredit the use of soldiers by promoting some “misleading audio footage of the so-called rigging during the Ekiti governorship election, in which one Captain Sagir Koli was the dramatis personae, is childish and absurd”.
He said the Nigerian Government deployed soldiers in the Anambra, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun gubernatorial elections and all those elections were devoid of violence.
“Remarkably, the APC won in Edo and Osun; APGA won in Anambra, Labour Party won in Ondo while PDP won only in Ekiti State,” he said.
He added that the basis on which the APC is agitating for the exclusion of soldiers from the election by sponsoring court cases is patently dubious and untenable.
“The reason that the APC and its leaders do not want soldiers deployed is to be able to intimidate voters and unleash violence on the polity once they lose the elections.
“They know that it would be far more difficult for them to do that when soldiers are on the streets.
“With these dishonourable tactics and desperate acts by the APC, we are the ones who should be worried and who should be complaining but, unlike Buhari and the APC, our patience is not running out because we are committed to a peaceful election and we completely reject the option of violence,” he said.

I’ll flee Nigeria if APC wins — Bode George

In this interview with ENIOLA AKINKUOTU, a
national leader of the Peoples Democratic
Party, Chief Bode George, speaks on the
recent comments of former President
Olusegun Obasanjo and other national issues
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says
President Goodluck Jonathan plans to
perpetuate himself in government like the
former President of Cote d’Ivoire, Laurent
Gbagbo. What do you think of this
comment?
He (Obasanjo) says he is a Christian and as a
Christian, it is emphasised in the New
Testament of the Bible where Christ said
judge not so that you will not be judged. But
his judgment is no longer about the policies
of Jonathan. He has gone down to the extent
of saying Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari
(retd.) will jail you (Jonathan), that is why
you are afraid. I am holding my breath
because in an African setting, you talk to
elders with respect and that is why I am
trying to get the right words to describe my
feelings. Baba (Obasanjo) is not a young man.
He was Head of State at 39. So averagely, he
should be about 84 or 85 and I am requesting
that he should graciously fade away into the
midnight. In the Bible, Romans chapter 13
states clearly that we should pray for those
in authority. It says pray for your leaders so
that they don’t run aground. So, to me that
is my own interpretation. If baba (Obasanjo)
had attended the Council of State meeting in
Abuja, where they were very well briefed,
and that it was decided that only the
Chairman of the Independent National
Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega,
that could pronounce a postponement and
that he should go and come up with a
decision and Jega addressed a press
conference. Now to start comparing our
President with Gbagbo in Cote d’Ivoire is
unjust, unsavoury and unfair because what
is the population of Ivory Coast? What are
the tribal sentiments of Ivory Coast? Are
they the same here? I want to plead with
Baba. God has been kind to him and he has
served his own time. I don’t want to
conclude that his life will be like King Saul
in the Bible. I pray it will not be so. Baba has
played his role. No generation can finish any
job. Nation building is a continuous exercise.
You come, do your own and go back into
history.
Apart from the issue of insecurity which
Jega gave as the reason for the
postponement of the elections, do you think
INEC was ready to conduct the elections
on February 14 and 28?
I granted an interview recently and there
were two posers that I gave to Jega. Thank
God Jega is a professor. He told us that there
was an 88 per cent collection rate in Borno
State where there is massive insurgency as
well as in Yobe and Adamawa states. Here,
where there is calmness and civility, only 30
something per cent of the populace had
collected PVCs. It is just improving. I think as
of last Friday over three million had
collected as against 5.6 million. And he is
saying we are ready. Without the Permanent
Voter Cards, you are immediately
disenfranchised. Ask Jega that as a professor,
will it be fair to conduct an examination
whereby you have (students who have)
covered 80 per cent syllabus and another
class where you have (students who have)
covered only 30 per cent syllabus. Is it fair?
The other question is this issue of card
readers. Have they been tested? I am talking
as an electronic engineer of 48 years in
practice. You just bought equipment from
China and the last time it was tested was in
China. Our own environment is not the
same. Look at the vagaries of the
temperature here from the swampy areas of
the South and the savannah in the North.
Who has tested the equipment? Now, I am
not saying they will not all work but if there
are almost 9,000 polling units in Lagos, is he
saying all the 9,000 card readers will be
functional? If the card readers fail to work in
some polling units, what shall we do?
Why did the military surround former
Governor Bola Tinubu’s house?
If Bola Tinubu finds his way into national
government, I will go on exile. He hasn’t the
temerity and the calmness of mind. They
don’t even know what to do in power.
Because the vice-president is his boy, he will
just order that Bode George should be picked
up. He said soldiers came to him but he
must have been dreaming. When he said
soldiers had surrounded his house, I drove
down there because my house is not too far
from there. I know the hierarchy of the
military and its behaviour. That they
surrounded his house is lie number one
because on either side of his house are two
buildings. There is also one at the back. So, I
wondered where the soldiers were hiding.
Why would you lie for public consumption?
So when I got down there, I knew that his
spin doctors were working. These days
people go on the social media and the story
went viral. Why would he (President Godluck
Jonathan) from Abuja, be running after Bola?
Let them be very careful about the
statements they are making. More so, if
Obasanjo is now linking Jonathan with what
happened in Cote d’Ivoire and coup; not in
this 21st Century. That is past and gone
forever. No nation goes through this kind of
tribulation twice and survive. We have had
our own experience of Civil War and I pray
that God does not direct our minds in that
direction and our people have to watch their
mouths.
The general perception in Lagos is that the
governorship race is between yourself and
Tinubu.
Absolutely not! In the PDP, no individual
owns the party. I happen to have been the
first national vice chairman, South-West PDP,
and then became deputy national chairman
South and then deputy national chairman for
the whole country and having done that,
they have honoured me that as long as I
remain in the party, I remain a member of
the Board of Trustees and I am the only one
representing the South-West in the national
caucus forever. That is a great honour in our
party but I don’t decide who becomes a
candidate. Primaries were conducted and in
this particular case, the voice of the people
became louder than anybody’s. I am not like
Bola Tinubu, I don’t have the papers of the
party in my pocket. I don’t even have a veto
power. But the other side doesn’t practice
democracy. We have friends that are
members there. Jimi Agbaje has no godfather
but will not behave like an authoritarian
governor.
But Senator Musiliu Obanikoro said you
were the one that imposed Agbaje.
That is absolute garbage, he knew he was
lying. You know he came from their party
and that is why he was saying it was me. He
has now retracted the statement. We are now
one indivisible party and we are ready for
election. All the vagaries and all that
happened during the primary was a test of
the ability and the strength of our party and
we listened to the voice of the people. The
voice of the people is the voice of God.
Jonathan’s perception in the South-West is
not as favourable as it was in 2011. There
has been blame on you and other PDP
Yoruba leaders for allowing Buhari to
increase in popularity in the South-West.
If you had said this about two or three
weeks ago, I would have agreed. I got these
feelers straight to my face. People came to
me and said they would vote for Agbaje but
they will not vote for Jonathan because he
had done nothing for us here. And I
explained that there is a general
misunderstanding of the concept of operation
in this country. The long periods of military
rule presupposed that the Head of State was
responsible for everything and it is that
same thinking that is responsible for this
situation. We are all hands on deck
explaining the differences between military
governance and democratic governance.
Highly educated people, my age groups, were
asking me this question but I explained to
them that 60 per cent of the impact the
President will have on you is through the
federal allocation to your state. Does he give
every state and every local government
allocation? Yes. They collect it religiously
every 30 days. In the area of security, he
guarantees it. It is only three states in the
North-East battling insecurity. There is peace
and he guarantees that. What of
infrastructure? All federal roads in Lagos
from Alfred Rewane in Ikoyi all the way to
Third Mainland Bridge and Ebute Meta are
federal roads. Are they like the roads in
Somolu and Akowonjo?
Secondly, the APC refused to participate in
the National Conference. Since he (Buhari)
has refused to debate, what will he do about
the resolution unanimously reached by the
National Conference? What will happen to
the report? The decisions of the National
Conference are so germane to the future of
this country. The more reasons why the man
who conceptualised it should be allowed to
implement his decisions.

Ekiti Gate: APC Wants Obanikoro Banned From Public Office, Adesiyan Sacked As Minister

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has called for the
banning of former Minister of state for Defence, Musliu
Obanikoro, from holding any public office over his role in
the rigging of the governorship election in Ekiti state on
June 21, 2014.
APC Presents Ekiti Rigging Audio Tapes To The Public
Mr. Obanikoro’s name was Tuesday sent to the Senate for
confirmation as minister, by President Goodluck Jonathan. The
APC asked the Senate not to confirm Mr. Obanikoro.
APC also asked Nigeria’s armed forces to immediately begin
investigating Aliyu Momoh, a Major General for his role in the
alleged rigging of the election in Ekiti and repeating same in
Osun and ensure that immediate and necessary disciplinary
action are taken against all individuals that were involved in
what it said was subversion of democracy.
A video recording recently emerged of an intelligence officer in
the Nigerian Army, Captain Sagir Koli, giving details of how
General Momoh was used by Mr. Obanikoro, Ayo Fayose and
others to rig the election.
Also now in the public domain is a recording of a secret
meeting convened by top Peoples Democratic Party’s politicians
to strategise on how to rig the Ekiti election.
Rising from its first joint leadership meeting at the Shehu
Yar’Adua Centre Abuja, the APC also asked the Federal
government to immediately relieve the Minister of Police Affairs,
Jelili Adesiyan of his appointment.
The oppsosition party also asked the Nigerian government to
ensure that the armed forces are kept out of partisan politics in
line with a recent judgment by a court in Sokoto and its
affirmation by the Court of Appeal on Monday.
Part of the outcome of the joint leadership meeting was that the
rescheduled election dates of the March 28 and April 11 must
remain sacrosanct. The party said it would not tolerate any
further shift.
The party added that “the use of the card reader for the 28th of
March and 11th of April is non-negotiable, as contrary to the
misinformation being disseminated the use of card reader is not
synonymous with electronic voting”.
Speaking earlier, the party’s presidential candidate and former
Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, urged members of the party
not to “relax” after the completion of its campaign rallies
nationwide.
Mr. Buhari said APC should not lose focus due to the
extension. “Our patience and resilience will be tested in the
days ahead. We must pass this test. In a time like this, which
in football analogy can be referred to as extra time, we must
avoid making costly mistakes,” Mr. Buhari said. The APC
presidential candidate said the party must use the next six
weeks “to re-charge and re-focus on our goal”.
He said the goal of the APC remains to win the elections now
slated for March 28 and April 11 with a convincing majority.
“We should aim to achieve a victory that will be beyond dispute
and proceed to form the next government and start work on the
task of rebuilding our beloved country.
“Our eyes must be on the objective to build a great society that
works for all of us. A country where every child has an equal
opportunity to get an education, where every young Nigerian
who needs a job can find one. Where the sick are looked after
and senior citizens are provided for. A country which gives
value to human life, where the welfare and security of all is a
national priority and corruption is defeated,” he said.
Speaking on the Ekiti rigging debacle, Mr. Buhari expressed
surprise at the silence from the government over the matter.
“Up till now, there has been no official denial of this most
unfortunate event. It makes me wonder, in the circumstances
that led to shifting of the date of the Federal Elections, whether
the security services are even now being prepared to play
similar roles in the March 28th and April 11th elections.
Mr. Buhari said security services have serious constitutional
responsibilities to the people of the nation adding that their
importance to the health of the country cannot be
underestimated.
He urged the leadership of the security services to keep the
institutions out of partisan politics.
“I personally and, am sure, all Nigerians, have tremendous
respect for our security services. I therefore urge strongly that
they stick to, and concentrate on, their constitutional duties,
otherwise they stand the risk of becoming part of our already
complicated national situation,” he said.
He also thanked members of the party who took time to
participate in his campaign rallies across the country.
He particularly thanked those “who have been made mind
boggling offers by our opponents in a bid to break our ranks
and curtail our momentum in the march to change Nigeria for
good, yet you have chosen to be on the side of a cause that is
just”. He appealed to the party leaders and faithful not to rest
thinking that all is won. “Six weeks is a long time and we do
not know the plans of the other side but with our strong
resolve, we will prevail.
“Therefore let us keep our eyes on the ball. Let us work as we
have never done before, and let us watch and help each other.
The days and weeks ahead will be tough.
“Our resolve will be tested and all kinds of evil tricks will be on
display. But do not despair. The goal is in sight. Change is
coming. The people of Nigeria will prevail. God has destined
Nigeria to be a great country. We shall overcome and Change
shall be achieved,” Mr. Buhari said.

SOURCE : PREMIUM TIMES