The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has accused the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of instigating violence in Kano in the aftermath of the electoral victory of Governor Abdulahi Ganduje in the supplementary gubernatorial election.
This, according to the group, is because the PDP gubernatorial candidate Abba Yusuf had set the tone for the outbreak of violence with a vow that the state would be plunged into violence if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declares the All Progressives Congress (APC) victorious.
BMO said in a statement signed by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, that the opposition party should be held responsible for the isolated cases of violence during and after the March 23 election.
“There were indeed pockets of violence in Kano during the re-run election but we at BMO are alarmed at the level of propaganda that PDP and the Kwankwasiya movement were pushing out while actual voting was ongoing.
“Some of the gory pictures posted online were found to have been from a bar brawl in Ghana while at least one showing a machete sticking out from an individual’s shoulder was actually a special effect shot by a make-up artiste.
“Yet another set of gory pictures were taken from previous Jos crises, all in an effort to discredit an election that the Coalition of INEC Accredited Observers said was largely peaceful.”
BMO expressed dismay that a former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso was at the centre of the call for public disobedience in the state at a time former Sokoto State Governor Aliyu Wamakkko was in Sokoto urging aggrieved APC supporters to be calm after PDP candidate and incumbent Governor Aminu Tambuwal was declared re-elected for a second term in office.
“Nothing could be more shocking than seeing a high-profile politician like Kwankwaso, a two-time Governor, a Senator and a one-time defence minister, who had on more than one occasion aspired to be president of the country making comments on national TV that could best be described as inciting public disorder.
“Even while the election was still on, he was reeling out incidents of violence based on social media posts in an interview on Channels TV and he is on record to have told his supporters before Saturday that there was no way PDP could lose the election.
“But somewhere in Sokoto, another former governor, who is also a Senator, did not make any inciting comment even after the APC gubernatorial candidate Ahmed Aliyu lost the election by a slim margin of 342 votes.
“Rather, he called for calm and promised to challenge the outcome of the election at the tribunal. That is what is expected of true statesmen instead of a call for ‘unprecedented crisis’ like PDP leaders did in Kano”, it said.
The pro-Buhari group also acknowledged the statesmanship exhibited by President Muhammadu Buhari, not only during the run-up to the March 23 election, but also during the process.
“In the midst of all these, we are impressed by the dignified and impressive neutrality of President Buhari who did not take any extra-constitutional measure to tilt the electoral scale in favour of his party especially in the states that he won with overwhelming majority on February 23.
“That is the main reason the re-run was a tight contest between the contending candidates in Kano and Sokoto.
“We challenge leaders of the opposition to mention at least one PDP-era President who did not interfere with the electoral process during supplementary elections, with a view to ensuring victory for his party’s candidates.”