Buhari plotting to rig Rivers election rerun – Fayose

Kamarudeen Ogundele

Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has described President Muhammadu Buhari’s swift reaction to the recent political violence in Rivers State as part of the All Progressives Congress’ plot to rig the election rerun holding on Saturday.


According to him, any attempt to clamp down on the members of the Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers State in the guise of stemming political violence will be counter-productive.

The governor, who decried the violence in Rivers and other states in the country, said, “Only a President with ulterior political motives will elevate political violence above the kind of genocide carried out by Fulani herdsmen in Benue State.”
Boasting that Rivers State and the entire South-South belonged to the PDP, he said, “Having failed in the court to steal the states from the PDP, Buhari and his APC want to use violence and intimidation.

“But they should know that even if they relocate the Aso Rock Presidential Villa and the APC national secretariat to Rivers State on Saturday, they will be roundly defeated.”

Fayose, who spoke through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, wondered why Buhari, who did not utter a word when over 400 Agatu people of Benue State were murdered, swiftly reacted to the reported political violence in Rivers State from faraway Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

He said, “In Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State, Fulani herdsmen allegedly killed over 400 people, including children and pregnant women, destroyed more than 10 villages. President Buhari did not raise his voice against this genocide until I condemned his silence.

“Also, in Mile 12, Lagos, 15 persons, including two children were killed with property worth several millions of naira destroyed during a clash between the Hausa and Yoruba; President Buhari did not give the security services any clear directive to deal decisively with anyone.

“Even though one is not against any action of the government aimed at curbing violence of whatever form, but it is pertinent to ask the president whether or not the killing of Nigerians should only attract his attention when it involves elections.”

The governor, who maintained that the President’s reaction to the reported violence in Rivers State was part of the grand plot to rig the election rerun, added that the people of Rivers will not be cowed into allowing Abuja to impose leaders on them.