By Davies Iheamnachor
PORT HARCOURT: The Presidential Candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, Mr. Peter Obi, has assured his supporters and party faithful that nobody would intimidate them or subvert their will at the polling booths during the 2027 general elections.
Obi also vowed that anyone who attempts to make votes not to count in the elections, would himself be counted.
This came as his Vice presidential candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso, warned political parties against relying on the number of governors they control as a guarantee of victory in the 2027 general election.
Obi spoke in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, yesterday during a Town Hall Meeting with voters in the state, tagged “Obi Talks Nigeria.
Fielding questions from the supporters, he said: “Nobody will intimidate us again at the polling booths. If you get to any polling booth today, the highest number of officials you see in any polling booth is five.
“The average number of voters is 40 to 50. There’s no way five people will intimidate 50 people. And we will make sure we have coordination to ensure that such intimidation does not arise.
“The people who are in these polling booths are from families that are suffering of hunger. Some of the policemen, their children are not in school. All they want is for you to defend and demand that your vote most count.
“And that is the demand we are going to make aggressively. Yes, they will try to manipulate the IReV. But let me tell you, it will not be easy this time.”
Obi said that voters would not allow any manipulation on the INEC Result Reviewing Portal, IReV, adding, “There will be so many IReVs this time. This time around, if there is network glitch, we will give them another one that has no glitch.
“By allowing them to continue, that glitch will glitch our lives. That’s what we are suffering today. This time all of us will rescue our country. Somebody said, ‘we are ready to die. Let me tell you, ‘I’m ready to die too.”
30 govs can’t guarantee victory — Kwankwaso
On his part, Kwankwaso, a former Kano State governor, at the same event, argued that several governors, particularly in the North, had performed poorly and might struggle to campaign for their parties ahead of the elections.
Kwankwanso said it was the time for the nation to get leadership right, adding that many of those people aspiring for the hallowed office of the President lack experience.
He said: “I believe that Nigerians must not make mistakes again. This is the time to get it right. And anything to the contrary, I believe people, if they make a mistake, certainly people will regret making that mistake. Because it will be too costly for the people and the country. Many of these people have no experience, or they want to forget history.”
Kwankwanso noted that the ruling party would lose the election despite having 30 state governors, recalling that the former President Goodluck Jonathan lost election even while in power.
He said: “Jonathan was the president, the sitting president lost the election. I’ve given you an example, especially those who think because they have over 30 governors, they cannot lose the election. That was a very big mistake.
“By the grace of God, all of them governors) especially the ones in the North, because I studied the trend. The trend is those governors and their party have performed woefully, to the extent that it is very difficult for them even to come out and campaign. Why? Because from top to bottom, did absolutely nothing.”
Recalling his experience as governor in 1999, Kwankwaso said states and local governments received about N4 billion each at the time.
He, however, questioned the impact of the increased revenues accruing to governments in recent years on the lives of Nigerians.
“Now in one year, we have seen it on social media that our government collected over N1.11trillion, just less than one year. You go around, what have you done with that money? Close to nothing.
“And people are very angry. And this anger is bad, and worse is the issue of insecurity, especially in northern Nigeria,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the governorship candidate of NDC in Rivers State, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, said: “We want to thank you for your sacrifice. I want to assure you that we shall have a Nigeria that works. I want to thank your excellencies, the leadership of our great party, for giving us this platform.
“I want to assure your excellencies that we are not afraid. Courage is not the absence of fear. But fear that has set us free.”
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