Too Bad If INEC Shifts Elections - Buhari

The All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has said it will be too bad if the Independent National Electoral Commission allows itself to be compromised to shift the general election or allow irregularities in the voting process.

Buhari made the statement in an interview published on Reuters on Friday, saying he was optimistic that he would win the election and that he would approach the courts if there are irregularities in the voting process. He said he would not call his followers into the streets.

Buhari said, “I’m optimistic that I won’t lose. But we signed an undertaking that it will be violence-free. We are attempting to stabilise a multi – party democratic system.

“There will be no delay. But if INEC is compromised then it will be too bad,” Buhari said.

The APC had said that the only reason the pro-Jonathan camp was pushing for a delay of the elections was because it knew that the president would lose if voting should hold as planned.

On the insurgency in the country, the APC candidate said it was a disgrace that neighbouring countries like Chad, Niger and Cameroon had been more successful than Nigeria in the battle against the Boko Haram insurgency.

Buhari told Reuters that, “It’s a big disgrace for Nigeria. It is now Cameroon and Chad fighting the insurgency more than Nigeria. We will build the capacity and Nigeria should be able to secure its territorial integrity

“Our main objective is to secure the country. We will not tolerate insurgency, sabotage of the economy by blowing up of installations, by stealing crude and so on. All these things will be things of the past.”

He assured that his administration would tackle corruption in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and reopen an investigation into the missing crude revenues of around $20bn, adding that he would tackle the theft of crude tapped from pipelines in the Niger Delta.

Credit: PUNCH