2015: I am so sure of defeating Jonathan if INEC conducts fair election

Former Head of State and a frontrunner for the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential ticket, General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), has expressed confidence in defeating President Goodluck Jonathan in next year’s election if only the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would make the election free and fair. He however added that his emergence would also depend on the choice of Nigerians.

The presidential aspirant, who also maintained that he is qualified to contest, spoke in an interview with Sunday Sun where he insisted that he had won past presidential elections he participated in and blamed his seeming defeats on the way the elections were conducted, saying he has been getting it right.

His words, “For example, look at what happened in the Supreme Court in 2007. There were three justices of the Supreme Court who presided over the appeal from the Court of Appeal. And the justices, three of them, said there should be another election because the election was not conducted according to law. Three justices said well, there were flaws in the election, but all the same, the ruling party has won. And then, the Chief Justice, decided to cast his vote with the three justices that said that yes, there were flaws, but all the same, the ruling party could have won. So, if the Supreme Court justices can be split, that means the election was controversial.

“We gave the evidence and the decision of the three justices that annulled the election arose from the facts. We collated them from the field and got them. That shows the contradiction with the Electoral Act. And that was why they annulled the election. The justices were led by retired Justice Oguntande; himself and the previous Chief Justice, Muktar, and one justice from Delta State,” he said.

Reacting to calls for him to step down for a much younger aspirant, Buhari referred to the Constitution and the Electoral Act which did not put an age limit for anybody seeking elective office even when they stipulated that such a person must be 18 years and above.

However, he jokingly told those insisting that he steps down for a younger person to go ahead and vote for whoever they consider to belong to the younger generation.