Social media aide to President Muhammadu Buhari Lauretta Onochie has alleged that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar and PDP leadership had plotted to use the electoral bill if signed to rig the 2019 elections.
Mrs Onochie made the allegation in a Facebook message on Sunday apparently pleased with President Buhari’s refusal to sign the bill.
She argued that the Senate headed by Bukola Saraki of the opposition party had intentionally replaced ‘Counting and Announcing’ with only ‘Announcing’ in the new electoral bill.
Onochie wrote that such move would only endanger the country’s democracy.
“What they did was to cleverly replace “COUNT & ANNOUNCE”, with only “ANNOUNCE” in the new electoral bill amendment which portends grave danger for the progress our electoral process made in 2015.
“It means COUNTING of our votes will no longer be necessary in 2019. Electoral umpires could announce any figure to favour whoever pays them well,” she wrote.
On declining assent to the bill, Buhari had said that passing a new electoral bill months before the elections could create some uncertainty about the applicable legislation to govern the process.
“Any real or apparent change to the rules this close to the election may provide an opportunity for disruption and confusion in respect of which law governs the electoral process.
“This leads me to believe that it is in the best interest of the country and our democracy for the national assembly to specifically state in the bill that the electoral act will come into effect and be applicable to elections commencing after the 2019 elections,” Buhari said.
Onochie’s new allegation comes four days after she posted a fake picture on Twitter alleging it was connected to Atiku.
