The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has accused the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar of twisting historical facts in a bid to discredit the outcome of the 2019 Presidential election.
BMO said in a statement signed by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke that facts in the public domain shows that the former Vice President lied when he described the election as the worst in thirty years.
It said: “At a time Nigerians were expecting the PDP Presidential candidate to toe the path of honour after his electoral defeat, we are stunned to hear him reeling out lies and half-truths couched in flowery language at a press briefing.
“Perhaps, the most embarrassing of Atiku’s half-truths is his claim that the 2019 Presidential election is the worst he has seen in thirty years, but any one that witnessed elections in the country since 1999 would easily discountenance the former Vice President’s position.
“Here is a man who was an integral part of the government that conducted the 2007 elections which even former President Umaru Yar Adua, who benefitted from it, described in uncomplimentary terms.
“Every adult Nigerian knows that at the time of the announcement of the result, some state presidential results had not been compiled or transferred to the INEC headquarters in Abuja.
“Atiku was on the losing side then as the presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), yet he has the audacity to publicly denounce the 2019 election as worse than that one”
The Pro-Buhari group noted that it was instructive that local and international observers have a different view from Atiku Abubakar’s position.
“Whereas the PDP Presidential candidate dismissed the elections as filled with irregularities, international observers have since expressed a contrary view. The European Union (EU) Observer mission led by Maria Arena described the election as the most democratic in the nation’s history.
“This same group had, after observing the 2007 election, said ‘there were many examples of fraud, including ballot box stuffing, multiple voting, intimidation of voters, alteration of official result forms, stealing of sensitive polling materials, vote buying and under-age voting’.
“We at BMO wish to remind the former Vice President that some local observers even described the 2007 polls as the worst in post-colonial elections. And this was an election that was conducted by Maurice Iwu, the man the PDP candidare engaged as technical consultant on the just-concluded elections!”, BMO said.
On Atiku’s position on voter turnout in Borno and Yobe states, the group said it was shocking that the opposition candidate expected it to be far lower than the 2015 figures.
“As a notable politician from the North East region, Atiku Abubakar of all people should know that there is a clear difference between the current security situation in the region and that of 2015.
“He would recall that the then military authorities prevailed on the Jonathan administration to shift the elections because of the precarious situation that made it impossible to conduct political activities even in the state capitals.
“Today, the two states are largely free of Boko Haram activities though there had been pockets of attacks on military formations, so it is uncharitable for one of the region’s most eminent politicians to talk down on the progress that his people have been witnessing in recent years for political expediency.
“What Nigerians saw on election day in Yobe and Borno states is a reflection of the new lease of life, unlike in 2015 when several villages and farmlands were deserted”.
BMO noted that although President Buhari secured a pan-Nigerian mandate, his performance in the North against an opponent from the same region reaffirmed his support base in Northern Nigeria.
“And like the New York Times reported, the President won a second term in an election that was in many ways a referendum on honesty”, it said.