ANNULLING 2015 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, NIGERIA WOULD HAVE BEEN AT WAR, SAYS JONATHAN
“In Lagos, people were ready to burst loose on the streets and in the North, the stage was set for envisaged violence. One of my party’s agents at the INEC National Collation Centre in Abuja, Elder Godsday Orubebe eventually got into a heated argument with the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega. That further raised the tension in the country. Everyone was expecting the worse. I knew it was time to douse the tension,” he said.
He explained that he conceded defeat for a slew of personal principles he had long held, and was even more conscious of past predictions of the United States intelligence that Nigeria would break apart, as well as an infamous comment by Buhari that dogs and baboons would be “soaked in blood” if 2015 elections did not go the way he desired.
“I knew what was coming the day before I called General Muhammadu Buhari. I had reports on the polls around the country. It was clear the results were not going to favour me. There were series of problems with card readers, resulting from widespread technical hitches leading to the non-uniform application throughout the country.”
The former President listed former Nigeria’s Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Attorney-General Bello Adoke, former Minister of Aviation Osita Chidoka, former Chief Justice of Nigeria Mohammed Bello and his domestic affairs assistant Waripamowei Dudafa as being amongst those present the moment he placed his concession call at the State House, Abuja.
He also accused the former Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega of exhibiting biase in the distribution of voting materials to the electorate, a development which precipitated his defeat at the March 28, 2015 Presidential election.
Penpushing reports that, Jonathan pointed out that the development suggested a vast conspiracy by the Independent National Electoral Commission which partly cost him his re-election in 2015.
“For some inexplicable reason, the INEC had been able to achieve near 100% distribution of Permanent Voter Cards in the North, including the North East, which was under siege with Boko Haram insurgency but failed to record a similar level of distribution in the South which was relatively more peaceful”Jonathan wrote.
The former President wrote further in the book he launched at Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja Tuesday, that as the election got underway, he paid stern attention to reports of irregularities as amplified in the media, but he was reluctant to ride on such excuses to reject the results.
“Social media was filled with all manner of stories, pictures and videos. I had settled in my mind that I was not going to be the sitting president pointing out these infractions and accusing the opposition and the very INEC I helped to strengthen’.
He added, “The world saw my ordeal at the polling unit in my community in Bayelsa State, where the card reader refused my PVC even after we tried repeatedly during accreditation. And it was the same with my wife and my mother. It was a moment that exposed the shortcomings of INEC,”
