President Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday, took a walk down the memory lane at a lecture organized to mark the 2018 Democracy Day held in Abuja recalling the strange spectacle former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Gosday Orubebe created during the 2015 presidential election.
While the result of the election was being collated, Orubebe sat on the ground where the exercise was taking place accusing the then INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega of partisanship and shouting, “We will not take it.”
Buhari recounted the incident at the lecture, hinting on roles played by the United States to ensure the election was free and fair.
He said, “Here I must digress to raise an observation by the programme organisers because I did not see Mr Orubebe who ought to have come and listen to professor Jega deliver his lecture, this is a major observation.
“That instance, for those of us who were lucky that there was light and we had the television to see the confrontation between Orubebe and prof Jega, it will remain a life impression to many of us. “The other one is the prof Jega briefing to the government, the opposition and the military before the date of the election was finally agreed on.
“Prof Jega, as a professor, it was not surprising, briefed us of his activities between 2011 and 2015, the recruitment, equipping and training of INEC officials, that gave those of us who are lucky to get the report, the courage that nothing outside the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria would be accepted by the opposition.
“So, the question of an interim administration or postponing election for more than 90 days shouldn’t be on the table and I thank personally the United States government then under President Obama by sending John Kerry to read the riot act to the government and to us the opposition then that nothing other than a free and fair election will be acceptable.”
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