By BASHIR ADEFAKA
A yet another attempt to incite the Nigerian voters against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its leaders before and during the Saturday February 25, 2023 presidential election process is said to have been thwarted, as a concocted statement purportedly credited to a leader of the main opposition party, Chief Olabode Ibiyinka George,slandering the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, was debunked.
The DEFENDER recalls an audio-visual clip in circulation, on the eve of Saturday elections where the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, his running and Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, and Chairman of PDP Presidential Campaign Council and Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, CFR were purportedly said to have plotted to rig the presidential elections.
We recall also that even before the affected PDP leaders and the party reacted, even non-party members across the country had said no one needed to be told before one knows that the audio-visual was a fake news.
Just as the elections were being concluded although with little hitches in places mainly Lagos, another such social media rumour peddling went to town, this time, projecting Chief Bode George, a former Military Governor of Old Ondo State and one time Deputy National Chairman South of the PDP in bad light as to purportedly disparaging the INEC chairman, querying to know why and for what reason he sneaked into Lagos using the private jet of presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and meeting with the APC candidate night of Saturday after the elections.
However, Chief Bode George, on Sunday, denied such ‘mischievous’ report published in some section of the media (excluding The DEFENDER) and attributed to him, describing such concoction called media report as laughable.
The statement, being circulated online, reads: “INEC chairman should tell Nigerians what he came to Ikoyi, Lagos to do last night being 25th February 2023. INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu sneaked into Lagos on the night of the election and met with some unknown persons in Ikoyi Lagos. My main concern is that he arrived and left in Tinubu’s private jet. – Bode George.”
But describing the report as satanic, evil and sinister, George said: “The senseless statement they are circulating, quoting me to have said INEC Chairman came to Lagos to see Tinubu and others is not from me. This must have emanated from demented souls.
“It is part of a Luciferic strategy to confuse the polity. I don’t work at the Control Tower or Cargo Section of the airport. Also, I am not an official of INEC, so how will I know the movement of the INEC Chairman?
“Everybody knows he is in Abuja as the Chief Returning Officer of the presidential election. Does it make sense to issue a statement that he came to Lagos to see Tinubu and others on Saturday when everybody was watching him live on television?
“After voting, I returned home with my wife to watch coverage of the election nationwide by various television stations. So, when did I issue the statement? This must have come from mischief makers.
“I want to declare that nobody can use me to score cheap political points. Prominent Nigerians have been calling me because of this senseless statement.
“The only point I want to make is that where there are no skirmishes, results should be transmitted immediately. I strongly suspect those who don’t want BVAS are behind this nonsensical statement.
“I am an Electronic Engineer, with 53 years of practice. If these people are not criminally minded, is it allowed for anybody, aside from INEC, to transmit results? Where I voted, we have the results. I know that any attempt to doctor results will lead to chaos.
“I want to tell Nigerians that I did not author any statement on INEC Chairman meeting Tinubu or anybody in Lagos or anywhere. It must have come from people suffering from undiluted lunacy.”
