PDP biggest beneficiary of 2019 elections, says BMO

The pro-Buhari group said this in reaction to the opposition’s criticism of the outcome of the governorship and state House of Assembly elections. The BMO in a statement by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju, and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, said the opposition party’s stance was in continuation of a deliberate effort to discredit the electoral process. “PDP knew what it was doing when it launched attacks on INEC with a view to blackmailing the leadership of the election management body in the run up to the 2019 election. “We had then drawn attention to what was clearly a conscious drive to tarnish the image of national institutions involved in the process. The targets of the opposition elements from the outset were the police and INEC.” The Pro-Buhari group expressed surprise that the complaints persisted after PDP retained control of six states while its governorship candidates were declared winners in two states that were strongholds of the governing All Progressives Congress. This, BMO said, showed that the opposition was only interested in destroying national institutions for selfish reasons. The group maintained that contrary to PDP’s position, President Muhammadu Buhari did not interfere with INEC’s constitutionally-guaranteed independence during, before and after the presidential election, as well as that of the governorship and state Houses of Assembly. It said, “We dare say that no one would have been talking about inconclusive elections in five states won convincingly by the governing party two weeks ago, in the PDP era; the party would have forced itself on the people regardless of their choice. “But this President who is keen on leaving a legacy of free, fair and credible election is only interested in ensuring that votes count and that’s what the PDP benefitted from on March 9.” The group said it would keep frustrating PDP’s attempt to rewrite history and would continue to remind everyone that there was still no public record of the state-by-state breakdown of the 2007 elections supervised by the “man who incidentally was the PDP and Atiku Abubakar’s technical consultant for the just-concluded 2019 elections.” Meanwhile, the BMO commended Buhari for not interfering in the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections. It said the president deserved commendation for not ensuring that the APC got undue advantage in the elections. The group said such was an indication that the President would at the end of his second term bequeath a robust democracy on Nigeria. “President Buhari is on record to have said Nigerians were free to vote for political parties of their choice at a time that key APC members were openly expressing support for governorship candidates on the platform of other parties. “So it is not surprising that the results so far announced by INEC officials largely reflected the will of the people, regardless of whether APC won or not.”]]>