Claims Witnessing Rigging in Election
- Safiu Kehinde
Former Plateau State Governor, Solomon Dalung, has expressed his displeasure with the conduct of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) primary elections as he claimed witnessing rigging at the poll,
Dalung held that the conduct fell beyond his expectations.
The ex-Plateau governor made this known while speaking on Seun Okinabloye’s Mic-On Podcast show on Saturday.
Reflecting on the conduct of the election which he monitored as an electoral officer, Dalung admitted to the allegations of electoral malpractices as complained by aspirants, Mohammed Hayatu-Deen and Rotimi Amaechi.
“I’m not proud of primaries. They failed beyond my expectation. But of course, that is what we have for now.
“It is not good enough because I expected that they would have done much better than this because I was involved as electoral officer.
“I witnessed some of these things that happened. We should have outgrown it by this time.
“26 to 27 years of our democracy, we should have gone past rigging primary elections.” He said.
On the controversies surrounding the final collation, Dalung maintained that the controversies were expected.
He however debunked claims of the coalition party collapsing on account of the exit of some of its founding members like the former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, who is now the 2027 Presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), and the likes of Abia Senator, Eyinnaya Abaribe, amongst others.
Dalung claimed that their exit had only made the ADC more stable as some of their followers stayed back with the party.
“What has destablise the coalition is personal ambition taking preeminence over our early commitment.
The coalition, as it is now, is not dead but it is not as formidable as it were.
“It is not dead because those who left have even fed the coalition to be stable.
“They moved into it with their supporters and when they were leaving, they left them behind. We still have people who followed the politicians into the coalition and are still in ADC.” Dalung said.
On claim of that the emergence of Obi as NDC candidate and Atiku as ADC candidate will give President Bola Tinubu an easier path to victory, the ex-Plateau governor refuted the claim, labelling it as delusional
He however maintained that the emergence of the NDC with Obi as its candidate marked the return to the First Republic politics where every region has its own political party.
Dalung ruled out Tinubu’s chances of mustering enough votes in his re-election bid.
“That is delusional. Where we are now is that we’ve returned to the First Republic politics. Every region now has its own political party.
“ADC is predominantly now a Northern political party. NDC, Southeast. PDP has been relegated to the South South. APC has been relegated to the Southwest.
“And in view of the combustion resulting from insecurity, the President has a Herculean task to think he can muster enough votes that will be over three million.” He said.