The national leadership of the PDP “carefully stage-managed the condemnation of the Borno central senatorial bye-election mainly to create a basis of insulting the APC led Presidency and to cast doubts on upcoming Governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi States with the intention of blackmailing the INEC, Ali Bukar Dalori, Borno State Chairman of the APC has said.
Dalori spoke in reaction to a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh alleging that the APC connived with INEC to rig the senatorial bye-election in favour of the APC’s candidate Baba Kaka Bashir Garbai even as the PDP candidate in the elections, Kaka Bolori also promised to challenge the outcome of the elections at the elections tribunal.
Dalori said that the National leadership of the PDP as well as Bolori and his supporters knew even before the elections that the PDP didn’t stand any chance to win a Senatorial seat in Borno and that was why former Governor Ali Modu Sheriff boycotted the elections despite the fact that he is the political godfather of Kaka Bolori, the PDP senatorial candidate and leader of the PDP faction that produced Bolori as candidate.
“The PDP national leadership knew from beginning that the PDP didn’t stand the slightest chance of winning senatorial elections in Borno State. In fact this was why no serious contender bought the PDP nomination form ahead of the elections; rather it was left for Bolori just to fill the slot. Former Governor Ali Modu Sheriff (SAS) has always wished to go to the Senate, he contested and lost in 2011 and in 2015 he was candidate before his candidature was forcefully withdrawn by the PDP; on the other hand, Sheriff’s political godson, Alhaji Mohammed Imam who was Governorship candidate of the PDP in 2015 is openly in love with the Senate but both of them refused to contest because they knew that the PDP stood no chance at all at the bye-election.
In fact, Ex-Governor Sheriff (SAS) even boycotted the bye-election; he was neither in Maiduguri nor any part of Borno State on Saturday which was the day of the elections. SAS stayed away even when he is the leader of the PDP camp that produced Kaka Bolori as candidate and despite him (SAS) being the political godfather of Bolori. So, the protest by Metuh against the elections was just stage-managed, their protest is not real, their target was just to insult the APC Presidency to create a false impression that the first INEC election under the APC led Presidency wasn’t free and fair, this was just the game plan. The PDP also wanted to blackmail the INEC ahead of Kogi and Bayelsa elections.
Bolori knew he wasn’t going to win the bye-election because the PDP in Borno has been sharply divided since the build up to the April 11, 2015 Governorship elections when a group of APC members that defected to PDP, led by ex-Governor Sheriff (SAS) supported Mohammed Imam who was one of them to be the PDP Governorship candidate while the old PDP members supported Alhaji Gambo Lawan. In fact, one week to the elections, the PDP didn’t have a substantive candidate in Borno State due to counter litigations. The two camps worked against each other and that problem is still there. The Sheriff camp produced Kaka Bolori for the senatorial bye-election and the other camp was not seen taking part, confirming the sharp division in the Borno PDP, so how can they now protest over an election they lost even before it was held?
In addition to this, everyone knows that majority of the old and new PDP strong pillars in Borno central have long defected to APC. People like Alhaji Kashim Imam, Alhaji Umara Kumalia, Senator Mohammed Abba Aji, Ba’ana Ajari and all their supporters have left the PDP. Stakeholders in the old PDP couldn’t have supported Kaka Bolori because Bolori belongs to the camp of Ex-Governor Sheriff and the two groups are almost irreconcilable.
Who else is remaining in the PDP at the Borno Central senatorial zone? No body. So can the same PDP that knows this start talking. I think if any party should be worried about the result of the very credible bye-election, it should the APC, we are concerned as to how PDP candidate at the senatorial bye-election was able to score 32,000 votes in just one Senatorial zone. For instance, at the April 11 Governorship elections which was just six months ago, the APC secured 690,183 votes and PDP got 34,771 in the entire Borno State not in Borno central, they got 34,772 putting together their votes from the three senatorial zones of Borno central, Borno south and Borno north put together. From that result, the APC got more than 300,000 votes in Borno central senatorial zone alone while PDP got around 13,000 votes in the same zone.
Whereas nothing has changed from our in-depth and correct analysis of voters’ discretion in Borno State, at the Saturday bye-election, the APC senatorial candidate, Baba Kaka Bashir Garbai secured 120,639 votes while PDP candidate, Kaka Bolori secured 32,346 votes in just one senatorial district which was not expected by anyone. The APC was expected to secure at least 200,000 votes but our party got less. The PDP was expected to get less than 10,000 votes but the party got far more which was 32,000 so who should be complaining if not the APC?
I think the PDP should actually be celebrating instead of complaining otherwise they are trying to insult the people of Borno State who have never hidden their disgust for PDP which is the party that presided over the affairs of this country under whose command we lost thousands of our illustrious sons and daughters, lost our communities, markets, schools, hospitals and what have you. The people of Borno State completely distance themselves from the PDP and the PDP supporters know this very well, so I don’t even know why they are complaining. Even though it is common for political parties to reject results whenever they lose elections, this particular protest by the PDP over the Borno Central senatorial bye-election is to say the least, stage-managed and laughable.
“We urge Chief Olisa Metuh to look for something better to do with time, if he has nothing to do, he should please sit at home and spend quality time with his good family that might missed him throughout the years he was actively engaged in politicking when his party, the PDP, was busy causing confusion in Nigeria”.
