The presidency has said that President Muhammadu Buhari would not change results to favour All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates in the March 23 supplementary elections.
This was disclosed in a Sunday statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu.
In the statement, Buhari said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is the body tasked with conducting elections, and not the presidency.
He said he would therefore not interfere in the commission’s work, urging party leaders to work hard to earn the people’s confidence in the six states where supplementary elections have been called.
The statement read in part, “The Presidency also rejects unfair and ridiculous criticisms of President Muhammadu Buhari’s apparent disinterest in the upcoming elections in some states by party members who wrongfully assume that the President will abuse power by changing results to favour them.
“Past presidents of Nigeria were known to interfere in inconclusive elections, and that is why party members appear to be upset that the same thing is not happening now, but President Buhari is a different kind of leader. He swore to defend the constitution and will not veer off from that.
“The constitution of Nigeria gives the President no such powers. It is unfair and ridiculous to criticise President Buhari for not going against the constitution.
“Party members in states where there will be supplementary elections then need to be reminded that they need to work hard to earn their people’s votes, rather than expect President Buhari to manipulate INEC in their favour.”
It added, “Interestingly, while members of the ruling APC were criticising the President for not interfering on their behalf, members of the opposition were condemning the President based on their assumptions that he would definitely interfere, as many in the opposition did while in power.
“Under President Buhari, INEC had been and will be completely independent throughout the elections and will be free from any interference.
“President Buhari is a man of conviction, and the manipulation of election results goes against everything he stands for; INEC is completely in charge.”
After the March 9 gubernatorial elections across the country, INEC declared the process inconclusive in Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Kano, Plateau and Sokoto states, and said it would organise supplementary elections in the affected states.
However, the commission later rescinded its position in Bauchi, saying it would resume collation of the March 9 results following the recommendation of a fact-finding committee.
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