Senator Shehu Sani urges Nigerians to use their mobile phones and social media to combat rigging

KADUNA Central Senatorial District lawmaker Senator Shehu Sani has called on Nigerians to make good use of their mobile phones and social media on Saturday to ensure that the elections are not rigged or figures falsified.

On Saturday, Nigerians go to the polls to elect a new president in what is now looking like a tight two-horse race between incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). There will also be National Assembly elections taking place with electors voting in candidates for the Senate and House of Representatives.

Senator Sani who is standing as a candidate for the Peoples Redemption Party, having lost out on the APC ticket following a long-running spat with Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai, said voters need to use modern tools to avert rigging. In a tweet on his Twitter page, Senator Sani said Nigerians should resort to the social media and phones to monitor the conduct of the elections.

He added that by monitoring their votes using these tools, Nigerians would expose acts of intimidation, inducements and violence. Over the last week, there have numerous claims and counter-claims by the APC and PDP about rigging with both parties accusing the other of intending to falsify results and snatch ballot boxes.

Senator Sani said: “In this elections, the phone and social media will be the citizens major potent tools to be used to monitor the elections, protect their votes and expose acts of intimidation, inducements or violence against voters.”

Already, the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has alleged there is a plot by the Buhari presidency and the APC to deploy special security forces led by the army and police to rig the elections. CUPP spokesman Imo Ugochinyere, also said the inspector-general of police has been mandated to ensure pro-APC police commissioners got the job done in selected states.

He added that with the postponement of the elections and the failure of APC to sack the Independent National Electoral Commission chairman for not succumbing to the presidency’s pressure to conduct staggered the presidential elections, the APC government has developed another strategy. Mr Ugochinyere called on President Buhari to stop his pretentious lifestyle and call off his thugs, retract his statements and desist from further trying to incite violence for the good of the nation.

Mr Ugochinyere said: “The president earlier in the week shamelessly bragged about how he gave authorisation to his security to kill anyone who is caught ballot snatching, whereas it’s a ploy by him and his immoral security agents to kill innocent Rivers people who will resist their rigging plan under the guise of tagging them ballot snatchers. We have credible intelligence that the army leadership acting on Buhari’s instruction were told to aid APC thugs to write fake results and smuggle into collation centres.

“The opposition also have it in good authority that the army is planning to abduct opposition leaders in Rivers on Friday night and seal off all local government collation centres to allow only APC agents switch results. We wish to let the army know that if they plan to compromise Rivers election and write fake results, it will be deemed as an invitation to anarchy, and the opposition will not for any reason accept any election rigging nor tolerate intimidation of any sort from them."