*His confession is personal to him – PDP
*You lied! Mantu’s confession mirrors your real past, nature – Respondents
*Okay, tell us his riggings were not counted as part of your “victories” – They said
*Follow Mantu’s example, confess your sins – APC tells Secondus-led party
*Why I confessed to rigging elections for PDP, Mantu insists no mistaking
*I only needed to bribe INEC officials, security personnel to favour my party – PDP chieftain
*‘All Nigerians must rise against PDP in whatever form turn; Third Force or any party they go’
Questions have also gone to Ologbondiyan and other PDP leaders battling to return to power to explain how much of seriousness can be attached to a ruling or former ruling party that claims to be working on electioneering discipline while the very President produced by the party and the party’s leadership were found publicly playing cards with and feeding fat on the resources and lives of the same Nigerian people they wanted to continue to rule.
Former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ibrahim Mantu, confession three days ago may have been taken with levity, but it has implications on the integrity and moral qualification of the just ended ruling party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to partake in serious national discourse and project in today Nigeria. This is the simple submission of an eminent Nigerian technocrat who insisted, in an interview with The DEFENDER on Sunday, to be anonymous.
He wondered that the Mantu’s confession has attracted “less media hype than fake news, dangerous rumours and hate speeches of #CorruptionFightBack elements, who have appeared in many faces to be fighting against Buhari’s re-election in 2019, usually attract.”
He noted that it was a big misdoing and mark of indisputable unpatriotism on the part of the media that has the God-given duty of cleansing the society of evil and helping sincere operators State to rebuild a better Nigeria but have obviously chosen to take side with the anti-Nigerian fighters who think, he said, that by collapsing the country they should have achieved their goal against the person of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He however lauded those print, electronic and online media who have been doing well in picking the positive sides of all news, interviews, columns and all analysis in a way that means well for Nigeria and the government.
“Do you not wonder there has not been any media hype for this Ibrahim Mantu’s confession of how he, in his capacity as Deputy Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, help PDP rig elections during the time their corruption and impunity lasted in their 16 years grip on the country? This is my problem with the Nigerian Press currently. They just choose to take side with corrupt people and help advance their course while making it look like Buhari is doing nothing. They only tell Nigerians through their hypes negative things like Boko Haram kill soldiers, herdsmen kills in Benue, Buhari sits on corrupt government founded on lies and propaganda, telling Nigerians precisely what, in all honesty, should be said about the people (PDP) they are supporting against the government.
“Not all the media anyway, some print, electronic and online media are doing well and I must appreciate them to be able to continue to well. As for those media, which are insistent on helping the wicked unprecedented opposition run down the current government that no one has ever been able to justify any claim of misdoing again, I wish them well. But they should know, like Chinua Achebe’s book title once named, ‘There was a media era’ in Nigeria which was founded on the interest that suited its pocked but today is nowhere to be found. Daily Times, despite its being defunct, will continue to be remembered for good; it made the many journalism veterans of today like Uncle Sam Amuka-Pemu, Chief Segun Osoba, Igwe Alex Nwokedi, Chief Tola Adeniyi, and so on and so forth. I must appreciate the reportage style of The Guardian. You too, The DEFENDER are doing well.
“Let anybody call names like stooge of government or APC, once you confident you have come out with all the balancing that is required of you as journalists, go ahead and publish without minding who calls you names. If your negative reports have tilted mostly on one party, tribe or people, it means those should be the ones to check themselves because we are quite comfortable that, since media is all about mirroring and you have mirrored well, you are doing well. Okay, do they expect The Guardian with its status or you The DEFENDER just coming up to be on the side of sentiment supporting people who have been globally noted to be responsible for the inability of Nigeria to move forward for long due to their corruption, impunity and self-centredness? The only time you guys will satisfy them will be the time you begin to pray corruption and join in the #CorruptionFightBack. This Mantu’s confession must silence PDP permanently and if they continue to talk it means they have no shame and then all Nigerians must rise against them in whatever shape or party they change to: Third Force or whatever,” he said.
Senator Mantu, who was a senator on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), ‘confessed the truth’ during an interview on Hard Copy, a Channels Television programme that airs on Friday.
Asked about how he helped to rig elections, he said, “I don’t have to go and change election (results) but when you provide money, you give money to INEC boys that if they see any chance they should favour you, you provide money to the security (personnel); I tell you it’s not necessarily when I am contesting election but when my party sponsors a candidate, I will like that candidate to win election.”
The former Deputy Senate President who pronounced himself as a born-again politician in 2017 disclosed that he helped to rig elections by providing financial inducements to officials involved in the conduct of the polls.
He admitted to having bribed electoral and security officials, even agents of other political parties in order not to raise any objection to the outcomes of the elections.
Ahead of the forthcoming general polls, Senator Mantu, however, believes Nigeria can get a free and fair election if people are born again like him and refuse to engage in electoral malpractice.
He further urged Nigerians to ensure they vote wisely in 2019 and support leaders who would make the welfare of the people a top priority of their administration.
“I am tired of living in poverty in the midst of plenty and I believe that we have the resources that people can live a decent life without being beggars to those who have,” Mantu lamented.
“So we need good governance and good governance can only be provided by good people; good people who are truly repentant, who are concerned about the well-being of the people.”
In the meantime, the Peoples Democratic Party says the former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu’s confession that he rigged election for the party is personal to him.
The party in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Sunday in Abuja said Mantu’s claim has nothing to do with the PDP.
He said, “The PDP has never directed or had any pact with him to rig election on its behalf. Never! Individuals run their elections on the platform of political parties once they emerge as candidates. In the PDP, candidates are issued with the party’s Code of Conduct containing the basic rules of electioneering engagements.
“There is nowhere in these rules of engagement where candidates or party members are directed to rig elections on behalf of the party. If any member’s conduct transgressed these basic rules of engagement, that individual did not act on behalf of the PDP, and as such the party cannot be vicariously held responsible.”
The PDP’s image maker did not however deny whether the riggings he, (Mantu) like many other PDP leaders were popular for, did were not counted as part of the victories of the party. Ologbondiyan also did not prove the compliance of his leaders and members with the rules of engagement as regards electioneering conduct he claimed were issued to them.
PDP should tell us about Chibok schoolgirls, others
Questions have also gone to Ologbondiyan and other PDP leaders battling to return to power to explain how much of seriousness can be attached to a ruling or former ruling party that claim to be working on electioneering discipline while the very President produced by the party and the party’s leadership were found publicly playing cards with and feeding fat on the resources and lives of the same Nigerian people they wanted to continue to rule.
“They should tell us about 246 Chibok schoolgirls because they are now making it look like Buhari was the one in government when they were kidnapped. They should tell us about how Nigeria borrowed money in hundreds of billions of Naira to pay salaries because they are saying now that Buhari’s who has not only paid salaries as at when due but also bailed states they made poor unable to pay salaries out of their predicaments. They should tell us again that since Buhari came to power they have seen no change in security problems, economic issues and corruption,” Adedoyin Fusika, leader of Concerned Citizens said.
APC to PDP: Follow Mantu’s example, confess your sins to Nigerians
Rather than engaging in what it described as name-calling, the ruling All Progressives Congress APC has asked the Peoples Democratic Party PDP to tow the line of its former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu and confess its sins to Nigerians.
In a statement signed by the APC spokesman, Bolaji Abdullahi, the party said; “The All Progressives Congress APC calls on the opposition Peoples Democratic Party PDP to follow the example of one its leaders and former Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ibrahim Mantu, and confess to their sins against the country instead of indulging in name calling.
“Apparently burdened by guilty conscience, the PDP National Chairman had last week apologised to the nation for the years of misrule that his party has brought to the country. The APC noted this apology but asked the PDP to go a step further and confess to their sins before restitution could be considered.
“Instead of taking this path to redemption, PDP has engaged in fruitless ‘you too’ accusations and name calling. This is further evidence that PDP is not ready for repentance and only offered the apology with the hope that Nigerians will grant them amnesty and a short-cut back to power.
“However, now that Senator Mantu has belled the cat, by confessing to how he has helped the PDP to rig elections in the past, we hope that PDP will follow the bold example of the former Senator and confess to their other sins against Nigeria”.
