Information minister Lai Mohammed says President Muhammadu Buhari did not confer any advantage on his ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) during the February 25 presidential election, saying it is the freest and most authentic presidential poll in the nation’s history.

Mr Mohammed briefed State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

“I went to the U.S. to balance the skewed report about the just concluded elections, and everywhere I went, I said very unambiguously that the last general elections in Nigeria are the most transparent,” stated the minister.

He added, “It was the freest and the most authentic Nigeria had ever held, and that is despite the effort of the opposition to delegitimise the election. And I put forward my position there that the two reasons the election was the best were one: The introduction of technology, especially the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), made it pretty difficult for anybody to do the usual things before like over-voting, stuffing of ballot boxes and the likes because once it takes your biometrics; you cannot vote twice.”

Mr Mohammed reiterated that the president promised to provide a level playing ground which he did.

“The first instance was that the president did not confer any advantage on his ruling party; and that is why as far as he was concerned, he would rather lose the election than win at all cost; and the result showed it,” he stressed.

Mr Mohammed said his principal lost in his state, Kastina, in the presidential election, pointing out that it had never happened in Nigeria before for an incumbent president to lose an election in his home state.

The minister said he told his audience in the U.S. that the president prevented using security agencies to rig elections and that the last election was largely the least violent in the history of Nigeria.

Mr Mohammed affirmed that what he said about Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, was clear.

“I said Obi has every right to seek redress in court like the Labour Party, but nobody has the right to call for insurrection or to threaten to say that if the president-elect is sworn in, that would be the end of democracy,” stated the minister. “And that was precisely what Obi’s running mate said on live television, and I have not heard Obi rein him in or correct him; so, if your running mate says something, of course, he was saying on behalf of the party and on behalf of the candidate.”

The information minister added, “That is why I said that was treason. For anybody to say that if a duly elected president in Nigeria is sworn in, that will be the end of democracy is treason. For anybody to say if you swear in a duly elected president, you are swearing in the military. It is treason. So, I don’t see anything controversial in that.” 

(NAN)