National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, on Friday denied meeting with the national chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, over supplementary elections to hold in Sokoto State.
An organisation identified as Sokoto State Coalition of PDP Supporters had in an advertorial published in Daily Trust on March 21, claimed that Tinubu and APC national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole; Senator Adamu Aliero and Zamfara State Governor Abdul’Aziz Yari, met with Yakubu to influence governorship rerun election in Sokoto in APC’s favour.
In a statement on Friday by his media office, Tinubu described the allegations as untrue.
“These allegations by a contrived PDP organ are desperate untruths without a basis in fact.
“But they are entirely in line with the delusional reactions of PDP to their devastating loss in the presidential elections.
“Most recently, they alleged that Asiwaju was physically in Kano to manipulate elections there. They backed up this fraudulent allegation with photographs of Asiwaju and the Kano Governor taken last year in Lagos.
“For so long and so often, they cannot even get right the whereabouts of one man. That they can’t even tell the truth about the location of a single person shows that they are incompetent to manage the complex affairs of an entire state.
“It is a matter of public record that Asiwaju has always been at the forefront of the struggle for electoral reform; a struggle that culminated in the establishment of the Uwais Commission by late President Umaru Yar’adua.
“A prominent member of that panel, Prof Attahiru Jega later became the INEC Chairman and was able to implement the far-reaching reforms that have enabled us to have the free and fair elections that we witnessed in 2015 and now in 2019.
“If Asiwaju was such a prominent supporter of electoral reforms, why would he now be among those trying to subvert democracy?
“Asiwaju’s only tools for influencing elections are his moral authority, his skills as a veteran politician, and his dedication to campaigning and mobilizing his own party members,” the statement read.
The APC leader also said the party’s governorship candidate in Sokoto, Aliyu Wamakko, was popular enough to trounce the incumbent Aminu Tambuwal of the PDP.
