‘We Have Proof Atiku Won The Presidential Election’ — Buba Galadima

Buba Galadima is one of the spokesmen of the Atiku Abubakar
Presidential Campaign in the general election. Though he leads the
Reformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC) as its national chairman, he
is a resolute member of the Atiku campaign on the platform of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In this interview aired on Channels
Television’s Sunrise Daily, Galadima insists that the PDP won the
February 23 presidential election and that the court process would be
used to prove the assertion. Group Politics Editor, TAIWO ADISA who
monitored the interview, brings excerpts:

There were reports
that you were arrested but the security agents denied that they had no
reason to arrest you and then later on, we heard that you had written to
your family members to say you were in a safe place. Were you actually
arrested or just a gimmick?

It was not a gimmick. It was a reality and I just elected not to talk about it.

So, were you arrested?

I have elected not to speak about it.

You don’t want to speak about the “arrest” but you did write that letter to your family.

Of
course, I did from where I was and assured them of my safety; to say
that I was in safe hands so that there will be no anxiety.

The allegation was that you had tried to publish fake results of the election.

That
is the lies the All Progressives Congress (APC) have tried to say. Were
there any results announced by me or purported to have been released by
me? All that they were afraid of is that if I’m free, I could have
checkmated their rigging machine and I want to leave it at that?

You think there was rigging in the 2019 elections?

Of
course, everybody across the world who followed the contemporary
Nigerian election of 2019 knew that there was massive rigging and
massive intimidation of voters. In fact, there was robbery by the APC,
using the security agencies, especially the military, to rig the
elections.

These allegations that you make…

If it is an
allegation then go and ask the people from Bonima, from Bonny, from
Asari Toru, from Degema and a host of other places in Benue, Plateau,
Borno, Yobe and Zamfara states. Ask them whether there was military
takeover during the elections, which the Supreme Court of Nigeria had
clearly said in 2003, 2007 and 2011 that soldiers have no business in,
even appearing during elections. They have no business and, of course,
we all know that the terms of military engagement in security within the
territorial integrity of Nigeria has to follow certain procedures.

You mentioned a number of states where you cite military presence as being the reason you think the results were rigged…

We
are all Nigerians. You’ve been living here. You know, as of fact, that
one month to the election, the military had declared what you call the
Python Dance across the 36 states of the federation. That is preparatory
to their engagement during the elections and they said not only before,
but during and after the elections, this exercise will go on and it did
go on and they used it effectively to intimidate voters, to harass
voters, to kill voters and then write results for the APC.

You made these allegations…

Is that an allegation? You had not seen what had happened in Rivers?

We heard…

Oh
you heard! You have not seen. I thought it was on the television that I
saw where the military were entering houses and killing people.

Well, I didn’t see visuals of them killing people. What I saw….

The
newspapers were awash with the number of people killed in several
states. In fact, these military are good candidates for the
International Criminal Court of Justice (ICC).

What we saw were
military men clad in military uniforms taking over a collation centre.
But when you say that you saw them writing results….

When you
intimidate other people and you chase them away, you are giving those in
authority the chance and the privilege to write results for themselves.

Aren’t you just looking for excuses to justify why your candidate lost in the election?

My
candidate did not lose. Records available to us show that our candidate
had won this election and that is why we have gone to court. This is
why the APC has sponsored some highly-placed Nigerians and paid them
handsomely to appeal to Atiku not to go to court. What is their
business? Didn’t their candidate, in 2003, 2007 and 2011, go to court to
challenge verdicts of elections? Did General Muhammadu Buhari, after
the Supreme Court ruling that elections were fair and conducted
satisfactorily, ever congratulate those that were declared to have won
the elections? Why is it Atiku? Have you ever heard that a petitioner
went to court and asked for permission to inspect election materials and
the respondent himself now goes to court, because he’s not sure that
what his agent did was right, to also ask for the same privilege to
inspect electoral materials? They said they won and they want to inspect
election materials. That has clearly showed you that the election was
rigged and this election was not conducted according to the rules.

Some people would say we should speak with respect to what we know.

I’m speaking with respect to what I know. Maybe you don’t know, but I’m saying it to you.

Your allegation that some people were paid handsomely has not been substantiated by anyone.

Let
them take me to court, I will substantiate it because those who came to
persuade Atiku not to go to court were housed in hotels and guest
houses that were paid with monies from…

Wait till they go to court.

They
believed that for the sake of peace and for the safety of all
Nigerians, it would have been better for him not to go to court so that
violence doesn’t break out in some ways?

So, you mean that going to court and seeking for somebody’s right will trigger violence?

You
know Nigeria better than I do. You have lived here longer than I have.
From what you have seen and from your experience in the 2015 elections,
if President Goodluck Jonathan had said he was going to court, what do
you think would have been the reaction on the street then?

There
wouldn’t have been any reaction. We had gone to court before. General
Buhari was in court in 2003, in 2007 and 2011. The heavens didn’t fall.
They wouldn’t have fallen if Jonathan had decided to go to court and he
could have thrived because of what had happened eventually from the
rulings of the Supreme Court in Rivers and Akwa Ibom. In fact, with the
benefit of hindsight, I think Jonathan shot himself in the foot.

Some people say he (Jonathan) is a hero…

Of course, that was by choice. That is the democracy.

Do you agree with them?

I
am a democrat. Everybody is entitled to his opinion. I don’t need to or
not agree with them because they are entitled to their own opinion and
we should respect their opinion.

I just wanted to know your opinion.

Don’t bother with my own opinion. I had expressed it at that time.

I believe you are here to express your opinion.

Of course, I do and you know that I speak my mind straight.

We
spoke to Mr Segun Sowunmi and asked him what happened in his own
polling unit. Were the elections rigged also in his own polling unit?

You
mean one polling unit out of 129,000 polling units will determine what
is right or what is wrong or what had happened or not happened across
Nigeria? Are you fair to the system?

I’m only asking you a question, was it rigged as well?

If
I tell you my polling unit is okay and there was no rigging, does that
suggest that there wasn’t such in other polling units across the
country.

You have alleged that the election was daylight robbery
and totally fraudulent. The picture is that there is no polling unit in
this country where free and fair elections conducted and your candidate
could not have lost in any polling unit across the country.

Elections
are not really what happen during queuing and voting alone. Elections
could be rigged even before the Election Day and elections could be
rigged even after votes were counted at the polling units. Between the
polling units and the ward collation centre, elections could be rigged.
The elections could be rigged between the ward collation centre and the
local government collation centre; between the local government
collation centre and state collation centre, and also between the state
collation centre and the federal collation centre.

Let me give
you an example; in Gama Ward, Kano, there was a successful election.
Collations were made at the polling booth level. Collations were made at
ward level. At the local government level, hoodlums led by the deputy
governor of that state, came to the collation centre and tore the
results. But because it suited the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) to declare the election in Kano inconclusive, they now
awarded medal to the deputy governor for the brigandage and the
thuggery he had done.

If you allege connivance between the
Resident Electoral Commissioner and the state government, I think the
onus is on you to prove that?

Do you mean the REC does not know
the rules of INEC? He deliberately refuses to adhere to the rules of
INEC that made him REC. What did he do?

We’ve seen that these
allegations come as they affect each political party. Was the election
also rigged in Atiku Abubakar’s polling unit?

I don’t know what
you are trying to get to. Allow us to tender our evidence in court. I
don’t want to pre-empt what the court will say. But I can say boldly
that if there are courageous, just and Godjfearing Justices in this
country, this election will be upturned and Atiku Abubakar will be
declared the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as it had
happened in Kenya.

I will give you an example of what had
happened in Kenya. Election was conducted, Roila Odinga’s lawyer, the
opposition candidate who was purported to have lost the election, went
to court and approached the court to get certain documents from their
electoral body in Kenya and the electoral body started playing
hanky-panky and refused to release those documents to him. Unknown to
them, we are living in a technological world; they had captured
everything that was transmitted electronically. Foolishly, when they
refused him access to the documents, even though granted by the courts,
he now approached the courts and told the court that he had been
refused….

The Supreme Court eventually ruled in favour of the
opposition which was a courageous thing to do. But there were
consequences in Kenya. Violence did break out, up to the Supreme Court
judgment upturning the elections.

It was induced by those whose elections were annulled.

Did you think we will be able to take whatever consequence, be it good or bad, if the court rule in his favour?

Peace
anywhere in the world is premeditated by justice and if the courts do
justice, it doesn’t matter what happens after all. It is a price we have
to pay.

Source:- Tribuneonliineng