National leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has assured foreign observers of the coming elections that they are welcome and that they have the freedom to do their work.
This came in the wake of a threat in a comment made by the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, who said, last week, on an NTA programme that foreign observers who interfered with the process would go back home ‘in body bags.”
The statement generated a lot of controversy.
But speaking during the APC’s presidential rally held in Lagos on Saturday, Tinubu advised the visitors to “observe what they want to observe”.
He said, even as he accused the Peoples Democratic Party of inflicting injury on Nigeria’s economy, “Who sent Michelin, Dunlop, Siemens (packing) out of the country? It was the PDP government. They want to come back to take our money to Europe and America.
“For the foreign observers, you are truly welcome. Observe what you want to observe; write your report in peace and go home. This is our democracy. America is still questioning its own democracy.”
Tinubu noted that the PDP was the most notorious rigger and described former President Olusegun Obasanjo as the most culpable in this regard.
‘In 2007, the late President Yar’Adua said the election that brought him as president in this country was flawed and he promised to reform it. Who conducted that election? Obasanjo is the greatest election rigger in this country. Let him be put in the dustbin,” the APC leader said.
