Keyamo, Melaye differ over Buhari’s anti-rigging comment

Spokesman of APC Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo SAN, and Sen. Dino Melaye disagreed over President Muhammadu Buhari’s comment on those planning to rig during the general elections.

Speaking during a programme aired by Channels TV, on Tuesday, Sen. Melaye said he was disappointed with President Buhari’s choice of words on ballot snatching.

President Buhari had while speaking at the APC Caucus meeting in Abuja issued strong warning to those planning to disrupt the rescheduled elections through rigging.

“Anybody who thinks he has enough influence in his locality to lead a body of thugs to snatch ballot boxes or disturb the voting system, will do so at the expense of his own life,” Buhari said, a comment that has elicited different interpretations by politicians.

Dino, while featuring on the Channels TV programme, said, “I am utterly disappointed in my president; I am completely in shock that in a democratic setting, the president will speak with the tone of Idi Amin Dada of Uganda using the word ‘ruthless.’

“The president will order killing of Nigerians without going through legal procedures,” he said, alleging that such was the disposition of the APC and the trademark of its members.

While countering the senator, Keyamo said he was in full support of the president for using the words he did, adding that he would implore the president to repeat what he said several times. Keyamo said: “There is no spin to put to the statement of the president; there is no need to repackage it. What the president said is 100 percent correct, 100 percent defensible and I will urge him to repeat it repeatedly.

“The president said whoever leads a band of thugs to snatch ballot boxes or disturbs the voting system, will do so at the expense of his own life. That is a correct statement of the law because, if you look at the definition of thugs – people speak without looking at definitions – a thug is a murderer; a thug is a rubber, a vicious person,” he said. Ha added that “whoever does not like it (what the president said), that means the person is a rigger and one who snatches ballot boxes. The president did not say APC or PDP members, he said anybody who snatches ballot boxes.”