A Chieftain of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Alhaji Buba Galadima, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, openly showing the world who they voted for during the 2023 presidential election constituted a desecration of the secrecy of the ballot. He added that this is enough reason to nullify the election.
What he said: Galadima, who stated this today during an interview with Arise Television, noted that the military annulled the election of Chief MKO Abiola simply because he wore a face cap with the image of a horse to vote. He said:
- “I saw Arise TV at about 9:15 am on Saturday showed General Buhari, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria voting and showing to the whole world who he has voted for. And ask all his supporters from the catchment area that Kwankwaso comes from to vote for Bola Tinubu.
- “And the Attorney-General of the Federation also did that that alone is a desecration of the secrecy of the ballot. In the enlightened environment, that alone would nullify this election and I want to remind those of you who don’t know that the military annulled the election of chief MKO Abiola simply because he wore a face cap with the image of the horse to vote.
- “He was only a candidate. So Nigeria has a history of all this, but the truth of the matter is that we have a judiciary that can stand the test of justice and truth.
- “I am saying this as Buba Galadima, when my party meets later today we will decide on which line of action to take. We are in support of what I would call peace in this country, but not peace at the expense of justice because when there is no justice, there is going to be no peace anywhere in the world in any circumstance.”
Claims about NNPP’s candidate: He noted that only Senator Kwankwaso contested the election as a national presidential candidate, adding that even when Northern groups called him for a meeting to determine who to support, he rejected the idea by saying that he was running for the presidency of Nigeria, not the presidency of northern Nigeria.
- “That is on record, this dismal performance was not because he was not popular, but because we were not on the ballot, we were not legible, our symbol was not legible and our name was not on the ballot.
- “So Senator Kwankwaso is the hero of this election, he is the one that ought to win this election, but because he was systematically being chased out by INEC. Professor Mahmud knows his antics against this NNPP. We were not defeated at all; the results cannot be true of what is happening.
- “In fact, if in 2019 the total votes of that election were 32 or 34 million and today we have barely 23 million people that voted, it means the remaining eight or 10 million voted for Senator Musa KwanKwaso, but because there is no symbol, the name of his party was not there, that was why we have a low turnout on that election,” Galadima said.
Go to court and stop heating the polity