Adewumi Ademiju, Ado -Ekiti
Ekiti State House of Assembly former speaker, Hon. Femi
Bamisile, has responded to the trending issue on the comment of President Muhammadu
Buhari instructing security agencies to deal “ruthlessly” with ballot
snatchers during elections
The former speaker described the comment of the President as the most patriotic ever made by
a sitting President.
Bamisile said the order attested to the fact that the All Progressives
Congress (APC)-led federal government and the leadership of the ruling
party under Buhari had no plan to rig the February 23 rescheduled
Presidential and National Assembly polls.
The APC chieftain, who is a House of Representatives candidate in
Ekiti South Federal constituency II, predicted that Buhari and other
candidates of the party would win in Ekiti by 80 percent in the
Saturday elections.
President Buhari had on Monday revealed during an APC stakeholders’
meeting held at the party’s secretariat in Abuja that he had given
stringent order to security agencies to “deal ruthlessly with those
who may want to snatch ballots and ridicule electoral system on
Saturday”.
However, the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) National Chairman, Prince
Uche Secondus, described the presidential directive as a call to
anarchy and leeway for jungle justice in the politics of the nation.
Bamisile, who defended President Buhari in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday
while interacting with journalists, said : “The president didn’t give
a shooting order the way former President Olusegun Obasanjo gave a
shoot at sight order against OPC when he was President .
“President Buhari only said those who snatched ballots will have
themselves to blame. So, I stand hundred percent behind him on this
order. We are not in the 19th century when things were absurd. It is a
barbaric act for anyone to snatch ballot boxes.
“If anyone loses his life while attempting to snatch ballot boxes, he
should have himself to blame. Nigerians should see elections as a
process that will come and go and the nation will remain. Why is the
PDP afraid ?If you are not a thief and they say if you steal you go to
jail, why are you bothered if you are not a thief?”.
He promised that if elected, he would join the vanguard of those
federal legislators that will make laws for the good governance of the
nation
Bamisile said his utmost priority for the masses in his constituents
would be bursary and scholarship awards to students, provision of
facilities like ICT Library to aid learning and research and provision
of employment for youths and empowerment for women groups to alleviate
poverty in the state.
On the call by the APC national Chairman for the removal of the
Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu over
election postponement and over allegation that some Resident
Electoral Commissioners had been bribed by PDP, Bamisile said the
commission’s head may not be the problem but those around him.
“There are so many bad eggs in INEC but the way I see Prof Yakubu,
isn’t a bad person. But as a leader, he must watch those around him
who could smear his name by their conducts.
“But to make the job easier for INEC, politicians need to be more
civil, patriotic and realize that the game is temporary, it doesn’t
last forever. I appeal to Nigerians that we should have eagle eye on
what is happening in Abuja and ensure that the coming polls are
peaceful”.
Bamisile predicted that President Buhari enjoys cult-like followers in
the North that will make him win the next election, in spite of the
noise by opposition that the PDP had taken over the North.
“Forget about all the talks that his fame has waned, the President
has a natural vote in the north. We will win this poll with not less
than 4.7 million votes. When he contested on the platforms of ANPP and
CPC, the least he ever got was 12m votes. Now that he had served and
performed well, it will be more”, he said.