By Dansu Peter
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has listed the Security agencies, the then Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, the ex-national Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Adamu Mu'azu among others who betrayed him that led to his defeat by President Muhammad Buhari.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has listed the Security agencies, the then Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, the ex-national Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Adamu Mu'azu among others who betrayed him that led to his defeat by President Muhammad Buhari.
Jonathan made his feelings known in a book, “Against The Run of Play”, written by the Chairman of ThisDay Editorial Board, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, said Buhari could still fight corruption using a different style.
The former President said: “I felt really betrayed by the result coming from some northern states. Perhaps for ethnic purposes.
Jonathan also accused the then Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase of conspiracy against him in last minutes.
"Even security agents colluded with the opposition to come up with spurious results against me. You saw the way the Inspector General of Police, a man I appointed, suddenly turned himself into the ADC to Buhari immediately after the election.”
“How could we have lost Ondo, Benue and Plateau states if our people were committed to the cause? If you examine the results, you will see a pattern: in places where ordinarily we were strong, our supporters did not show enough commitment to mobilise the voters.”
“What happened was very sad not for me as a person, but for our democracy.”
“Take, for instance, the PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu. I believe he joined in the conspiracy against me. For reasons best known to him, he helped to sabotage the election in favour of the opposition.”
Another betrayer Jonathan mentioned is Prof Attahiru Jega, the then INEC Chairman. He said he was disappointed by Jega’s insistence on conducting the elections in February 2015.
The 2015 general election were initially scheduled for February 14, 2015, but the Jonathan administration shifted it by six weeks. The action was greeted by strong criticism from some Nigerians.
The former President, according to the report, said when Jega was insistent on conducting the elections in February 2015, about 40 per cent eligible Nigerians had not collected their Permanent Voter Cards.
Jonathan was quoted to have said, “I was disappointed by Jega because I still cannot understand what was propelling him to act the way he did in the weeks preceding the election.
“As at the first week in February 2015 when about 40 per cent of Nigerians had not collected their PVCs, Jega said INEC was ready to conduct an election in which millions of people would be disenfranchised.”
According to the report, Jonathan said he met with Jega to express his reservations about the preparedness of INEC for the elections.
According to him, the former chairman insisted that the election would go ahead.
He stated, “Of course, the Americans were encouraging him to go ahead yet they would never do such a thing in their own country. How could we have cynically disenfranchised about a third of our registered voters for no fault of theirs and still call that a credible election?
“The interesting thing was that the opposition also supported the idea of going on with the election that was bound to end in confusion.”
Jonathan was also reported to have defended his decision to postpone the election, saying it was for security reasons.
“When the military and security chiefs demanded more time to deal with the insurgency, the reasons were genuine,” he said.
“As of February 2015, it would have been very difficult to vote in Gombe, Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. But the moment all the arms and ammunition that had been ordered finally arrived, the military was able to use them to degrade the capacity of Boko Haram to the level in which they posed the threat to the election.”
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