Ozigbondu:
GEJ my man of the century if only somebody was sane enough to toe his line four years ago 800 lives would have not been lost,churches and mosques will still be standing.

Reuters}

(Reuters) - As Muhammadu Buhari closed in on Nigeria's presidency, an aide to election commission chairman Attahiru Jega sent a text message to an independent voting monitor, warning of an imminent threat to the electoral process.

The aide had unearthed a plot by supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan to disrupt the public announcement of the national election results and kidnap Jega in a bid to wreck the count, according to pro-democracy advocates and a Nigeria-based diplomat.

Central to the plan, they said, were Jega's security detail and Godsday Orubebe, a former cabinet minister from Jonathan's Niger Delta, an area whose leaders feared a change of power would mean an end to the perks it enjoyed under Jonathan's presidency.

Orubebe's role was to cause a disturbance at the headquarters of the commission as cover for the abduction of Jega. Orubebe did not respond to requests for comment on the details of the plot.

The commission, called INEC, also declined to comment and turned down requests for an interview with Jega, whom Reuters was unable to reach independently. Reuters found no evidence to suggest that Jonathan, who conceded defeat in the election, was involved. His spokesman and his party, the PDP, did not respond to requests for comment.

While the plot would likely not have changed the result, it could have unleashed fury among Buhari supporters in the north, where 800 people were killed in rioting after his last election defeat in 2011.

But the plot's failure enabled Africa's most populous country to complete its first credible vote since independence in 1960.

"NIGERIA ON TRIAL"

The plot to derail the election in its closing moments was pieced together by Reuters from the text message, events on the ground and interviews with democracy advocates and diplomats in the capital, Abuja.

When he sent the SMS, the election official, whom the sources declined to name for his own protection, hoped the outside world would hear of the plot, the text of the message made clear.

"Fellow countrymen, Nigeria on Trial," read the SMS sent on the morning of March 31 to Clement Nwankwo, head of the Situation Room, an Abuja-based coalition of human rights groups and democracy advocates monitoring the polls. Reuters later saw the SMS.

"Plans are on storm [sic:
the podium at the ICC Collation Centre and disrupt the process," it continued, the official dropping words and letters in his haste.

"Nobody is sue [sic] what will happen. Please share this as widely as possible."

At that moment, INEC chairman Jega was about to preside over the announcement of results.

TALLY COUNT

Since the end of army rule in 1999, all four previous votes had been marred by violence and ballot-rigging.

The 2015 poll was different in two crucial aspects.

It was a genuine race, pitting Jonathan, saddled with an ailing economy and an Islamist insurgency, against a former general promising to get tough on corruption and the Boko Haram insurgents.

Voters had also been given biometric ID cards linked to their photographs and fingerprints, making it hard to inflate voter numbers significantly.

As tallies from around the country showed Buhari on course for a win, unidentified PDP hard-liners started to panic, seeking ways of manipulating the count, Nwankwo and the diplomat said, citing political contacts in the Delta and Abuja.

Realising they could not engineer an outright win, PDP agents set about doctoring the tally at collation centres in pro-Jonathan areas to ensure Buhari failed to meet a requirement for 25 percent support in two thirds of states, Nwankwo said, citing reports from election monitors on the ground.

A Reuters reporter witnessed and photographed one tally list in Port Harcourt with suspiciously similar totals for registered voters at polling stations: 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 450. In another tally centre in the city, 17,594 valid votes were recorded out of a registered voter population of 11,757, the Reuters reporter said.

Foreign election observers also noted the peculiarities - and contacted diplomats in Abuja who called in international intervention.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his British counterpart Philip Hammond - in Switzerland for talks on Iran - issued a tough statement saying vote counting "may be subject to deliberate political interference".

"CREATE A FRACAS"

But as Buhari's lead grew, some PDP supporters from the Delta, including Orubebe, decided on a final gamble: to create a disturbance in the main INEC hall and have thugs snatch Jega from the stage, according to Nwankwo and the Abuja-based diplomat.

What the group planned to do after the abduction is unclear, the diplomat and Nwankwo said, but the confusion could have triggered nationwide violence.

"It was a desperate thing, mostly by a group of people from the Niger Delta who were in the room," Nwankwo said, describing events that unfolded publicly in the minutes after he received the SMS.

When Jega opened proceedings on the morning of March 31, Orubebe, the former Niger Delta minister, grabbed a microphone and launched into an 11-minute tirade accusing Jega of bias.

"Mr. Chairman, we have lost confidence in you," he shouted, pushing away officials trying to make him surrender the microphone. "You are being very, very selective. You are partial," he continued, surrounded by three or four supporters. "You are tribalistic. We cannot take it."

Nigerians watched, aghast, on live television.

Meanwhile, Jega's security detail was approached by unidentified individuals telling them to stand down, according to Nwankwo and the diplomat.

But the bodyguards refused.

"Some of the guards who had been guarding Jega for years demanded a written order," Nwankwo said. "But it didn't exist."

Jega then rebuked Orubebe: "Let us not disrupt a process that has ended peacefully," he said as Orubebe slumped in his chair.

"Mr. Orubebe, you are a former minister of the Federal Republic. You are a statesman in your own right. You should be careful about what you say or about what allegations you make," he said.

Later, Orubebe congratulated Buhari on Twitter, expressing his "apologies to fellow Nigerians".

panachuku:
waiting for that troll who screams fayose is my hero, gej is my mentor

panachuku:
waiting for that troll who screams fayose is my hero, gej is my mentor

panachuku:
waiting for that troll who screams fayose is my hero, gej is my mentor

LewisO:

[size=15pt]He went on a trip to another country, so that is "touring". [/size]

LewisO:
[size=15pt]Keep touring, while Buhari is busy on how to deal with your case. [/size]

Eghosakelly:
President Jonathan pictured
with President of
Ghana, John Dramani Mahama,
at the State
House in Abuja today Tues.
Read carefully

dam4sam:
Comments:

1.) Simple fact. I laughed when everyone was going on about GEJ being a statesman because he conceded defeat.

It took 6 years for him to become a Statesman abi? Wonderful.

Na God save us for Naija! PDP!!! criminals to the end.


2.) Those calling Jonathan a statesman and praising him for conceding defeat are myopic or simply doing it intentionally to swell his head so that he could just vamoose from Aso-Rock to prevent him destroying our democracy. Jonathan does not worth the praise that people have poured upon him; he is a saddist that don't care about whatever happens to Nigeria.

STATESMEN ARE CONSISTENT NOT ACCIDENTAL. JONATHAN HAS ALWAYS BEEN NOTHING CLOSE TO STATESMANSHIP FOR THE 6 YEARS HE HELD SWAY AS NIGERIA OPPRESSOR. GOD JUST DECIDED TO REMOVE HIM FOR PEACE TO REIGN IN NIGERIA. QED.

I have said it before that Jonathan had no choice than to concede to defeat because there was no more any hiding place for him. The SS & SE votes that he depended on to manipulate figures could not save him because they saw that the gap was too wide for them to close. Jonathan is a dangerous man so are his demonic PDP vampires, rogues and vagabonds. May we never have a party like PDP to govern this country again.

The coming weeks, months and years would be very very interesting because all the fraud and stealing perpetrated by Jonathan and PDP would be gradually unraveled!!!

3.) In the coming months, a lot of Pandoras box will be opened. And when Professor Attahiru Jega writes his memoir Nigerians would be let into the full cocktail of intrigues that evil men in the PDP and presidency engaged in in the weeks prior to and during the elections. The intense pressure and intimidation brought to bear on him to throw in the towel and his determine not to yield to the whims and caprice of evil men in the corridor of power.

4.) I said the same thing to a group of my friends who were already believing that scam of GEJ making that devilish phone call. He was constantly reminded of the Gbabo treatment that was why he had to let go or else GEJ was ready to set Nigeria on fire, but God pass man. If he GEJ was a gentleman why did he allow the character assassination against the people's General during their campaign calling him names and swearing that he was not electable and will not rule this country. God is gradually exposing GEJ and his gang of criminals.

Statesman with these friends:
Kashamu
Obanikoro
Bode George
Fayose
Omisore
Oduah
Alaimisegha
Fani Kayode
Orubebe
Wikke
OPC Gani Adams and Fasheun
Mimiko!

5.) No! It was the African delegation led by Kofi Annan and John Amos that showed Dumbo pictures of Gbagbo in prison, that Joe Biden's phone call only forced Dumbo not to defer the elections again... after he lied to Sen. John Kerry that the elections would hold as scheduled.

6.) Recall that Orubebe kept asking Jega to go to his office(?) if he had done that he would have been abducted!
I kept wondering why he was shouting 'go to your office'. Orubebe claimed there was documentation in the office and Jega should go and examine it. Oh my God! This is what the display was about. Jesus is a wonderful and mighty God. They wanted the Ivory Coast scenario and we would have all been fighting now. You're so observant. Well done!

He acted Jonathan and his evil PDP script to letter. They are evil men. Orubebe was an evil messenger sent by the cabal. God punish Jonathan for his evil plan against Nigeria.

7.) No wonder he(Orubebe) was charging at Jega to leave the collation hall and move to his office...They would have ambushed him on his way to the office...Men... Jonathan is the most useless president ever.

No Wonder orubebe was shouting go to your office and reply to our letter. Had he decided to leave that venue, then their plots would have been executable. Damn patience and wisdom is the key to life. Jega didn't even moved.

8.) Like I said then..Jona has no choice but to make that call to Buhari. The old military boys were watching him because he rub them the wrong way with that certificate saga. They were mad, had a meeting and decided he has to go. He was smart to have make that call, he would not have got out alive from aso rock.

9.) To me, Orubebe's attitude was highly suspicious. I was even questioning his insistence that Jega must leave to his office to attend to their petitions. Then, I was praying Jega should not leave. My thought was that once he leaves the hall PDP will do everything possible to force him to alter the results. I believe the behind-the-scene was very dirty on Jonathan's part and this was why Obama gave kudos to Jega. Jonathan is far from being an hero but a devil.

Now that the election is over, we should let Jonathan and his criminal gangs know nothing must happen to Buhari before the handover date and afterwards

10.) Why are they planning to handover on May 28th at the dinner? Buhari should not go.. The Constitution states on May 29th in a broad daylight not back alley In aso rock

11.) I have always said it that Jonathan did not willingly give up power like that, even in the face of overwhelming defeat. What was Kofi Anna doing with him a day or 2 days before the final announcement? Why was General Abdusalami and one prelate of Anglican doing with him earlier in the day he called to congratulate Buhari?
What did America and British government saw before they started screaming that some elements within the political circle wanted to inflate figure to give advantage to a particular candidate. Why did Jonathan inflate figures from the south east and south south if truly he believes in true democracy.
With time everything will be exposed to the public.
They plotted, schemed, strategised, and laid ambush against the nation's interest, but God our protector destroyed their evil machinations.

12.) News making the rounds say that SOME PDP sympathizers HAVE NOT YET GIVEN UP on GEJ continuing in power with devilish plans to cause a monumental Constitutional crises. Buhari has to be closely protected by a security outfit that is not beholden to this present government. I know only God is the ultimate protector, all the same, these are desperate men in very desperate situation!

13.) The pressure on Jonathan Goodluck to concede defeat was too strong. When Premium Times purported revealed those who prevailed on Jonathan Goodluck to concede defeated all of them were Ibos and I was surprised. Could this be true. I knew never bought into the bare faced lie. It was the US, EU, UK, AU, and ECOWAS that put tremendous pressure on Jonathan to accept defeat. In fact, at a point they issued veiled threats which the Presidency fully decoded and knew the game was up. Jonathan Goodluck, if he was a statesman by accepting defeat, was not a willing statesman. He was a reluctant "statesman".

14.) To the PDP doubters and deniers, please go to Reuters UK site, it gives more details of the kidnap plot than Sahara - it also talks about how the tallies in SE and SS were doctored all over the polling units on the day to deny Buhari a meeting of the 25% requirement. What should bother us is that the abductors were to be his government security detail, paid for by the Nigerian state.
I think PDP should be banned as an organisation in Nigeria, they're nothing but a criminal gang.

15.) I have said it earlier that Dumbo did not concede defeat out of his own freewill but for the pressure put on him by the ex-generals led Abdusalami Abubakar. This was in line with the peace accords they were made to sign before the election. He dare not refuse to concede defeat because he knows what the ex-generals can do if he refuses and the situation degenerates into chaos and/or violence all over the country. #GejIsNotaHero

16.) Hate him or love him, OBJ was the first to alert the whole world to what Jonathan and PDP were planning, being a former "inner caucus member" himself.
Nigerians will be shocked to discover how deadly the Jonathan Presidency had been. Many things will begin to expose after May 29 handover date. Jonathan and Patience intended to retain office by all means or destroy Nigeria. It took a combined efforts of the Western World to stop the very wicked First Couple from hatching their ungodly plans. Obasanjo knew it earlier!

I made a "collection" of these opinions, so everyone can benefit from reading them under just one shop!

What do you think? wink

linusbnn:


If Buhari touch dis man,make he ready for me

Ozigbondu:
GEJ my man of the century if only somebody was sane enough to toe his line four years ago 800 lives would have not been lost,churches and mosques will still be standing.

LewisO:

[size=15pt] Wetin u wan do? [/size]