“I want to be proved wrong but the IGP’s tenure would be renewed because this is the man that can help the president rig the election.”

Chinelo Obogo

Spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organisation, Buba Galadima, has alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari is retaining the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, beyond his term in office just to rig the 2019 elections.

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Galadima said this on a Lagos-based national television station programme, yesterday.

“The tenure of the IGP, Ibrahim Idris, will expire on January 3, 2019 but, I assure and I challenge whoever would want to disagree with me, that by that time, President Muhammadu Buhari would renew his tenure. I want to be proved wrong but the IGP’s tenure would be renewed because this is the man that can help the president rig the election.

“I challenge the IGP to tell us his role in 2015, when he was sent by the PDP, to the North West, to stop certain things. I challenge him to debate me in a public forum for the world to see and hear.

“This is a man who defied the orders of the president and should have outrightly been dismissed for that, but, he was condoned because they want to use him for future purposes.

“Why did the president retain all the Service Chiefs? Are they the only people that are competent within the military or is the IGP the only competent officer in the police that the president has decided to deny other geopolitical zones who have senior members in the police hierarchy the chance to have an IGP?

“It is simply because, when the IGP leaves, other zones would take over since they have very senior officers in the hierarchy. President Buhari is nepotistic and, for that, he would not allow other zones who have senior officers to take over and that is why he would renew the IGPs tenure.”

Also, during the programme, Galadima squared off with Senator Ayo Arise, over Buhari’s chances in the 2019 presidential election.

While Galadima said Buhari will lose in 2019 and the PDP’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, will win the election and sign the Electoral Act (amendment) Bill into law, Arise, on his part, insisted the numbers favour the incumbent for a second term in office.

He said since the president has refused to sign the Electoral Act (amendment) Bill, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, PDP’s presidential candidate, would assent to it in 2019. I also want to say that the issue as to whether general Buhari or the president will sign the Electoral Act in January, I want to remind the senator that the president has not said so and I quote the president he said he is leaving it to the next government.

“Of course, God will answer his prayers because by May 29 he will not be president of Nigeria. So when we come in, it will be the first duty of Mr. president, Atiku Abubakar to sign that electoral bill.”

Earlier, Arise said there is no metric by which any candidate currently running for the presidency in 2019, can defeat Buhari. Buhari has “demonstrated times without number that he has integrity.”

There is “no arithmetic, there is no ratio by which we can conclude that any candidate that is currently running for this election can beat Buhari.”

The lawmaker said he trusts Buhari and has not seen any tendency for violence within the APC and added that the party will abide by the Peace Accord because there is “no desperation on the part of the president.”

He noted that the discrepancies within the electoral bill was a major factor why the president refused to sign it into law.

“We should lay a solid foundation. When you have draftsmanship with such a huge error, and you expect the president to sign it, then we will be the laughing stock of the entire world,” Arise argued.

The parliamentarian further noted that if the errors were not detected, then, it was a different issue, and added, “but, we will still pay for it down the road.”

PDP ready to wrest power from APC – Buba Galadima