Tobias Sylvester
The reformed All Progressives’ Congress (APC) chairman, Babu Galadima, has explained why he believes President Muhammadu Buhari has refused to sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
Last week, December 6, 2018, President Buhari in a letter to the National Assembly declined to sign the bill, saying it is for fear of disrupting plans already in place for the 2019 elections. Read the report HERE.
Galadima while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, said President Buhari is not interested in strengthening Nigeria’s electoral laws, adding that the president is only interested in protecting himself and his party because he’s afraid he won’t get enough votes to win re-election at the polls. He said:
“What the president said was just self-protectionism. He’s just protecting himself from being flogged at the polls. He’s running away from free, fair, transparent and credible election.
“There are two issues they’re afraid of. One, the transmission of the result directly from the polling booth to the collection centre.
“Two, the use of the card reader for accreditation because once accreditation is completed, all those that are accredited will be transmitted and the world will know, even before voting, that such number of people are being accredited and the result of the voting cannot be more than the number of people accredited.
“Therefore, there’ll be no mago mago or dabaru along the way. This is what the president and his party are afraid of.”
Galadima further said that there’s no reason for Buhari to have rejected the bill because it was prepared with the contribution of his legal adviser, the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, and the full cooperation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
