Buba Galadima, estranged ally of President Muhammadu Buhari has stated why the president could not be defeated during the 2019 general election.
Mr Galadima who heads a faction of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) had led his group to form alliance with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The group named Reformed-APC (R-APC) comprised of those who were unhappy with the emergence of Adams Oshiomhole, as the national chairman of the ruling party.
The coalition between the parties worked for Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the PDP for the presidential election but that did not oust the president.
The former vice president was trounced with about 4 million votes despite being backed up by two former presidents, paving way for Mr Buhari to actualize his second term ambition.
Stating why the opposition parties could not withstand the president at the poll, Galadima said this was because the exercise was militarised and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was intimidated.
He said the president and his administration were good at deploying military for election rather than the constitutional duty of the force which is to restore peace in troubled areas in the country.
“The election was not free and fair as I said earlier. APC and Buhari lost the election but INEC, the military and the police were used to declare APC the winner,” Galadima said in an interview he granted Sun Newspaper.
Knowing fully well their plans to rig the elections, some months before the polls Buhari deployed the military to some states like Rivers, Benue, Plateau, and others under the guise of tackling insecurity and armed banditry but the actual plan was to use the military rig the elections and this is what they did eventually. The military was used to help APC manipulate the elections. But legally, this is wrong. It is also immoral.
“Since 2003, the apex court, the Supreme Court had ruled that the military should not be drafted for elections but in defiance of the court ruling, APC deployed the military for this election .Military personnel were visible all over the country at polling centres.
“But what is even annoying is that while the government was deploying the military for the election, armed robbers and bandits were having a field day killing Nigerians from Abuja to Kaduna to Zamfara. In Zamfara state alone the bandits have killed over 1000 people. Why can’t government deploy the military to these places? Why can’t they deploy the military to tackle these hoodlums, bandits and armed robbers? But they didn’t do so. They find it more convenient to deploy soldiers for election duty, diverting them away from where their attention and energy is required, all because of their personal interests.
“The military should have no role to play in the electoral process at all. If the election has been free and fair, there is no way Buhari would have won the election. To me Buhari is an usurper. He imposed himself on Nigerians. He took power by force, and not through the free will of Nigerians,” the politician said.
The election that produced the president for a second term in office is currently being challenged the presidential election tribunal by the former vice president.
