Claims by the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration that the 2015 general elections, earlier slated for February 14 and 28 was rescheduled to allow for a comprehensive counter-insurgency operation in the Northeastern part of the country has been discredited by founder of the Oodua People’s Congress, Dr. Fredrick Fasheun.
According to Mr. Fasheun, if the elections had gone ahead on the scheduled date, Jonathan, who is the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate in the presidential polls, would have lost. He made this startling revelation while speaking at a Post-National Conference event sponsored by the Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko.
The video of the speech was published Saturday by New York-based online news website, Sahara Reporters.
The OPC chieftain also named actors who compelled the Independent National Electoral Commission chairman, INEC, Attahiru Jega, to postpone the polls.
According to Fasheun, a Senator in the fourth republic from Osun State, Mojisola Akinfenwa, approached him, expressing doubts if Jonathan would win the election the way things were going.
“The senator came to me and said, look, I think Jonathan is losing this battle and I responded to him, ‘Baba, I will never experience any loss in battle. Today, we shall shift this election’. And by the grace of God, when we had spoken to few people, Jega had no option but to shift the date of the election. If that election was not shifted, I bet you that Jonathan would have lost that election.
“The rigging had been perfected. The war-torn region of the North-East; Yobe was having 80 per cent PVC (distribution) while Lagos only had 62 per cent and even the governor himself was still crying to be given his own PVC. So, the few PVC we have must be maximised. That is why I am appealing to everyone. Let us all go there and this time, cast our votes in favour of a friend. Jonathan can be a friend”.
The OPC leader noted that he was not swayed by the anti-corruption slogan of the opposition All Progressives Congress and its candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.
“I am not carried away by the fact that somebody is not corrupt… People are turning history upside down. Who is not corrupt? Have we forgotten the $2.8bn lost? Have we forgotten the 52 suitcases filled with new currencies? Have we forgotten the chairmanship of PTF?” he said.
He added: “Have we forgotten that somebody recently said that if he doesn’t win the election or if the election does not go in his favour, the blood of baboon will mix with the blood of dogs? Whereas, Jonathan said my ambition to become President of this nation should not cost one drop of any Nigerian’s blood”.
Both the Gani Adams and Mr. Fasheun’s factions of the OPC, known to be mutually suspicious of each other, have over the past weeks joined forces to campaign for the reelection of President Goodluck Jonathan in the Southwest.
Particularly, the Adams’ faction led a protest on Monday in Lagos demanding for the removal of the INEC chairman.
According to Mr. Adams, the call for the removal of Mr. Jega was due to poor distribution of PVCs in the south, registration of under age children in the north and creation of additional 30,000 polling units in favour of the north.
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