All Progressives Congress Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has clarified an order that President Muhammadu Buhari gave security forces on Monday, concerning people who snatch ballot boxes.
During the meeting of the APC caucus in Abuja, Buhari had said, “Anybody who decides to snatch ballot boxes or lead thugs to disturb the election, maybe that would be the last unlawful action he would take… I have directed the police and the military to be ruthless.”
The statement has generated much controversy, with some people and organizations, including Buhari’s key opponent, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, saying the President was initiating extra judicial killing.
But speaking to newsmen shortly after the meeting, Tinubu said Buhari’s directive is not for security agencies to shoot indiscriminately but aimed at only those who disrupted the electoral process.
He said, “I was in that meeting. The president was just reinforcing the fact that if you are out there snatching ballot boxes, and causing destruction, you are at risk of your own life. Whatever happens to you; no president will give an order that his own citizens should be shot summarily. No! No, it’s okay, emotions are running high these days. Any individual including myself can be misinterpreted.
“These are not his words; he is a law-abiding person and he understands categorically and clearly what the rule of law is and the lives of individual citizens that he is in that office to protect. Now, let me run this: he has been fighting Boko Haram, kidnappers and all these before this election. Did you hear him asking them to be shot and executed summarily? If he has gone through that in the last five years, please give him a benefit of the doubt.”
