… as Buhari goofs at rally, calls Ogboru APC presidential candidate
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, urged members of the opposition party to join the APC so that their sins could be forgiven.
He spoke at the APC rally in Benin, the Edo State capital, on Thursday while receiving some members of the Peoples Democratic Party into the APC during the rally.
He said, “We have some PDP defectors. They are, Henry Tenebe, Iluobe….Iluobe means I have done something wrong. Yes, once you join the APC, your sins are forgiven.”
Oshiomhole advised the people to vote for the President and all the APC candidates at the polls.
At the rally, Oshiomhole, appealed to Buhari to probe the $16bn spent on the National Integrated Power Project by the PDP-led government of Olusegun Obasanjo.
He also told Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, who is also the governorship candidate of the PDP, that his days were numbered as the APC candidate, Chief Great Ogboru, would defeat him.
“Mr President, in your second term, I urge you with respect sir; you must fulfil the question which we have asked. After $16bn, you will ask, where is the light? Mr President, you have a duty to man and to God, to ensure that that question must be answered. It must be answered judiciously. It must be answered in the court of law and what people are entitled to know.”
On Atiku’s threat to privatise the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Oshiomhole warned the people of the South-South to stand firm with President Buhari as the PDP presidential candidate would sell the nation’s oil and gas reserve.
Uduaghan, the immediate past governor of the state who is the Delta South senatorial candidate of the APC, said the APC would sweep the forthcoming elections in the state.
However, there was a drama at the APC rally when the President failed thrice to correctly call the party’s governorship candidate in Delta State, Great Ogboru, by his designation.
Campaign rallies are often embellished with drama, or turn out dramatic and no candidate or party member is immune to such drama scenes.
Recall that the President had on Wednesday, during the APC presidential campaign rally in Lokoja, Kogi State, made a mistake about the time he assumed office.
The president had told the party’s supporters at Confluence Stadium, Lokoja that he assumed office on May 19, 2015, instead of May 29.
On Thursday, Buhari made another gaffe at the rally in Warri.
When Buhari was to hand over the party’s flag to the state governorship candidate of the party, he called him the presidential candidate of the APC.
He said, “I am handing over this flag of honour to our presidential candidate.”
A man on the podium to his left corrected him, saying “gubernatorial”, but Buhari made another gaffe by saying “to our senatorial candidate.”
When the man corrected him, saying “gubernatorial” Buhari said “governortorial candidate.”
But the PDP alleged that Buhari had voluntarily handed over his presidential candidacy to Ogboru.
It stated that the perceived handover was at the APC presidential campaign rally. The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbodinyan, said the handover had shown that Buhari had foreseen his defeat and already switched into a handover mode.
Ologbondiyan said, “The whole world watched as President Buhari, apparently overwhelmed by thoughts of his defeat, ended up declaring the APC governorship candidate in Delta State, Great Ogboru, as the presidential candidate.
“President Buhari told his audience, ‘I have this pleasure of handing over this flag of honour to our Presidential candidate’, while giving the flag to Great Ogboru.”
He added, “It is clear that President Buhari, worried by the shunning of his campaign by Nigerians, mistook the Warri Rally for the May 29, 2019 handing over ceremony that is four months ahead.
“Buhari is already in the mood of his May 29, 2019 handover of mantle of leadership to PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, following the national consensus to return the PDP to power in the February 16, 2019 presidential election.”
Ologbondiyan alleged that Buhari had continued to display that he did not have the intention of seeking for a second term in office.
