Magnus Eze, Enugu

A pro-Muhammadu Buhari group has said the card readers should be blamed for any lapses in the recently concluded general elections, instead of attacking the president or the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The Zikist-Buharist-Movement (ZBM), South East, reacted to the statement credited to the vice presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi, that the fraud which characterised the elections has greatly undermined the country’s democracy, its future and also significantly damaged the ongoing fight against all vices, and tainted the integrity of those responsible.

The group said the fraud and violence were not substantial enough to vitiate the general elections.

Secretary of the movement, Godwin Onwusi, who spoke in Enugu, yesterday, however, noted that the era when, as governor in 2011, the then president Goodluck Jonathan got millions of votes in Anambra, Imo, Abia, Ebonyi and Enugu states was gone.

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“That era is gone, thanks to the ubiquitous card reader, which makes rigging at collation centre cumbersome,” he said.

On how Buhari got more votes than Kano, Katsina and Bauchi states’ governors, the group said: “Obi should recall that Buhari has a treasure vote-bank of 12 million voters, which since his first outing in 2003 presidential election had surfaced, and resurfaced in 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019.

“It is possible Obi was one of those who thought Atiku would erode the Aminu Kano tradition in the North, which Buhari, not only inherited, but epitomised.

“It is a tradition of integrity quotient and prudence management of public finance.

“Atiku is deficit on this tradition and the votes reflected it.”