Chairman of the African Democratic Congress Adamawa Primary Electoral Committee, Nicholas Msheliza has accused Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal of attempting to rig the state’s ADC presidential primary.
He made the charges in a statement Wednesday,
The counter-allegation is coming after Lawal had earlier alleged that former President Atiku Abubakar manipulated himself to victory in the ADC presidential primary held last month.
Recall that Atiku emerged the presidential candidate of the ADC. However, Lawal branded the primaries as faulty in his comment when quitting from the opposition party.
In reaction, Msheliza claimed Lawal has in the last days tried hard to explain acts against the party.
I have been amused seeing him strive so hard to defend his behaviour with phantom explanations of unfair presidential primaries and rigging in support of Atiku Abubakar.
“I had earlier decided to be a mere spectator on the sidelines, but I found it expedient to break my silence and make some response so that gullible Nigerians would not swallow the venom of hatred and pack of lies being peddled by Babachir Lawal.
“With the highly esteemed office he occupied in the party, and as a pastor, which he sometimes claims to be, I never imagined in my wildest dream that Babachir Lawal could stoop so low to the level of twisting facts to defend his ineptitude and lack of capacity to deliver on what has turned out to be a scam he had sold to his principal.
“Babachir Lawal clearly has no idea or very little idea of the role of a returning officer.
“So to be clear, the local government that Babachir Lawal spoke about in his interview is the Hong Local Government Area, which is the local government that he comes from.
“I want to put it on record that Atiku Abubakar won that local government with 11,991 votes while Hayatu-Deen and Rotimi Amaechi got 2,493 and 377 votes respectively.
“When Babachir Lawal got the results, he called me and asked that I should reverse the results to favour his candidate. I disobeyed his criminal order.
“Strangely, one hour after that call, he dissolved and constituted a so-called new electoral committee for the Hong Local Government Area from his office in Abuja without recourse to me as the Chairman of the Electoral Committee for Adamawa State. This was the Babachir Lawal committee that went ahead to illegally carry out his rigging job in Hong, Madagali, Michika and Mubi North Local Government Areas without any ward electoral papers being provided to them. Please note that Hong’s initial findings had been entered before the so-called new committee of Babachir Lawal came up with the fabricated results from Hong.
“I was very happy when Babachir Lawal said he has his results sheets to prove rigging. I challenged him to make them available for public examination against the result sheets of Adamawa State Electoral Commission.
I want to warn Babachir Lawal that in my next comment on this matter, I will be more than willing to present to him a plethora of incontrovertible evidence, including unethical interferences to show the rigging processes the self-styled pastor unleashed on Adamawa State and the scam scheme he presided over during the presidential primaries. His plots for debauching the election were all defeated.
“If Babachir Lawal has personal scores to settle with Atiku Abubakar, I advise him to choose another means but not to discredit a process in which he was a chief planner, but got angry and frustrated because he was stopped in his tracks.
“Babachir Lawal is not hiding his face in shame as it were, but ranting like a rabid dog for his inability to justify the enormous resources entrusted to him with the results of the primaries so presented,” he said.