Escort your votes for protection against rigging, Buhari tells Nasarawa /Nigerians Category: News Published on Sunday, 18 January 2015 05:00 Written by Hir Joseph, Lafia Hits: 607 All Progressives Party (APC) presidential candidate General Muhammadu Buhari yesterday charged voters in Nasarawa State to make necessary sacrifices for the country, including escorting their votes to collation during the February polls. He told large crowds of surging admirers who throng Lafia Square, venue of the campaign rally in the state, by nightfall that Nigeria is a bleeding country that needs the sacrifice of patriotic citizens to recover. He told them in Hausa that all Nigerians of voting age must get their Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC) to participate in the election, but added that they must be prepared to protect the cast votes against rigging. Buhari’s speech was occasionally drowned by echoes of chants for “Nigeria, Sai Buhari,” a popular pro-Buhari slogan in Hausa, and “Nigeria, Sai Changi”, translating into “Nigeria needs change,” by crowds of admirers who thronged the rally venue and rooftops as well as treetops. He said a vote for him and the entire APC members contesting for various positions during the election is a vote for change, promising that an APC government will stop the bleeding of the country by addressing insecurity, poverty, absence of infrastructure, corruption, and the general problems facing the country. Buhari, who was flanked by his running mate, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, and the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Oyegun, as well as Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, who is seeking renewal of his mandate alongside his running mate, Silas Agara, lamented that the mandate of the people had been wasted all years since the return of democracy in 1999 because, according to him, a corrupt and visionless party hold sway at the national level. He asked the people to thrash the PDP, and embrace change by voting in the APC at all levels, come February elections. Buhari had earlier on arrival at about 6:15pm and commissioned the venue of the rally, which used to be called Parade Ground. Sunday Trust recalled that the same venue was to host him on campaign in 2011 when he contested on the platform of the defunct CPC, but truckloads of armed policemen were placed there to deny him access into the facility on March 22, of that year when he arrived Lafia. Earlier, the national chairman of the party was handed prominent members of the PDP, who served as cabinet members during the administration of former governor, Aluyu Akwe Doma of the PDP. Doma was the one who denied Buhari campaign space in 2011. The defectors were: Mohammed Iyimoga, who was Doma’s commissioner of Lands and Survey, and Yusuf Loko, who was commissioner of Education, and later Commerce and Industries. A former commissioner of information, Mustapha Awe, and a former special adviser to Doma, Mohammed Oshafu, and a former Chief of Staff to Doma, Tanko Zubairu, and their supporters also filed out and handed their old PDP cards to the APC leader at the Lafia Square.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 11:35:31 +0000
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