2019 presidency: Tanko Yakasai reveals only way Buhari may win election

INEC Chairman Prof. Yakubu Mahmood

Elder statesman, Tanko Yakasai, has said that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the police and other security agencies may work against President Muhammadu Buhari’s defeat in 2019.

He said Nigeria may not have free, fair and credible election next year, adding that Buhari was bent on having a second term by any means.

Asked if President Buhari can be defeated in the election, Yakasai told Sun that it will only happen if INEC does its job.

According to him, “I will rather put it this way – if INEC will do its job, the police also should do their job and other security agencies and the courts will do their job, will the APC win the election, I will tell you no.

“Our predicament is how are you sure that INEC will do its job and the police will do their job because when you see some of the policemen, you see the APC. What happened in some by-elections is sending a wrong signal that we may not have free, fair and credible elections.

“What is also worrying me the more is the attitude of election observers both the local and the international observers.

“When they come to a country, they concern themselves with the way people queue to cast their votes, they don’t concern themselves with what happens during counting, collation at the counting room, this is where the havoc is done.

“People can line up morning till night casting their votes, which is all right, but in a minute, the officer counting the votes can change all these troubles they have undergone for the whole day.

“In a blink of an eye, if it is 100, he adds a zero and it would be one thousand, and there is nothing you can do about it.

“I will like to use this opportunity to appeal to observers, foreign and local to draw attention to the question of counting of votes and collation room because that is where the devil does its work. Not only in Nigeria, but everywhere else.

“In Zimbabwe, where election took place recently, I can see from my sitting room, not as a fortune- teller, that something happened. The result of the parliament was announced the following day, but it took about five to seven days to announce the presidential election result. Why the delay. Is it to pad the figures?”

-Daily Post