Buhari Alleges Vote Rigging By Ruling Party

In an apparent bid to garner negative sentiments against the ongoing nation wide Presidential election in the event of a possible defeat, the Presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change, Gen. Muhammadu Buahari, soon after casting his vote at his Kofar Baru 111 polling unit at the Serkin Yara Ward in his Daura home town at about 12:51 pm, alleged that already thumb-printed ballot papers were airlifted to different states of the federation by the Peoples Democratic Party led Presidency in an attempt to compromise the 2011 presidential election in favour of the party’s candidate; President Goodluck Jonathan.

The retired General told reporters that one of such planes loaded with materials said to be thumb printed ballot papers arrived the Katsina state Airport at the early hours of Saturday. Buhari also stated that his agents at the Airport as well as others at the airport at the time of the arrival of the airplane were chased out of the vicinity before the suspected compromised voting materials were offloaded and driven straight to the Government House.

While expressing his concern over what he termed “nocturnal movement of presidential ballot papers”, Buhari stated that the source of his information is impeccable although he declined to reveal who the source was. “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,” the presidential hopeful stated.

Buhari also 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.According to him, “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”.

The CPC presidential candidate however said he would not challenge the outcome of the presidential election exercise in court as he did in the two previous elections when he contested against former President Olusegun Obasanjo and late former President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2003 and 2007 respectively.

He stressed however that if he was taken to court, that his party, the CPC, 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 do accreditation and vote.

By Nnamdi Felix / Katsina