The president-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) yesterday declared that he had not anointed any candidate for the position of Senate president, stating that he was willing to work with any Senate leadership irrespective of their geo-political origin.

In a statement released in Abuja yesterday by Mallam Garba Shehu, General Buhari described as false the insinuations in the media that he was in support of a particular senator’s emergence as leader of the Senate or that he belonged to any camp pushing for the emergence of an aspirant from a particular part of the country.

“I am prepared to work with any leaders that the House or Senate selects,” General Buhari said. “It doesn’t matter who the person is or where he or she is from.”

He added that the insinuations were probably borne out of people’s expectations based on the way things happened in the past, but he reminded Nigerians this time was a period of change.

“There is due process for the selection of leaders of the National Assembly and I will not interfere in that process,” General Buhari said.

He urged the media and the public to begin to get used to the fact that it was no longer “business as usual.”

“Nigeria has indeed entered a new dispensation. My administration does not intend to repeat the same mistakes made by previous governments,” the president-elect vowed.

Says ‘We’ll not forget, forgive electoral violence in Rivers’

President-elect Muhammadu Buhari yesterday assured members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State that his administration would not forget and forgive the election violence that occurred in the state in the last general elections.

Buhari gave this assurance when a delegation of the Rivers State APC, led by former deputy governor of the state, Chief Gabriel Toby, visited him at the Defence House, Abuja yesterday.

According to a source, in their closed-door meeting in which what happened at the last elections was tabled, Buhari said: “We will confront them with facts and figures. We will not forgive and we will not forget those who perpetrated killings and arson in Rivers State during the elections. At least, this is the much we owe to Nigerians.”

He also assured Nigerians that they would surely get the respect they deserve from government, adding that there will be no longer be an army within the army or a police within the police.

Speaking to journalists after the closed-door meeting, Chief Toby stated that the results declared in the state during both presidential and the governorship elections did not reflect the wishes of the people.

He described the election as a coup, saying the delegation to Buhari had shown that Rivers people were behind the president-elect before, during and after the election, and that they would support the incoming government.

The former deputy governor however asked the president-elect not to forget the persecution faced, and the many sacrifices made, by their son, Governor Rotimi Amaechi, to the success of APC, asking that the Rivers governor and others be compensated for their immense contributions.

Nigeria has redeemed its image, says Tony Blair

Former British prime minister, Mr Tony Blair, has said that Nigeria has regained its image before the international community following a successful general election that returned Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd) as president-elect, Hausa service of the BBC reports.

Mr Blair stated this during a congratulatory visit to President-elect Buhari on his recent victory at the general elections in Abuja.

According to the former prime minister, the incoming administration has greater challenges ahead but with support of fellow Nigerians, it can overcome them.

He urged the incoming government to remain resolute in its determination for a better Nigeria, and expressed optimism that Nigeria would be able to overcome its security challenges if the kind of effort put into achieving a credible election was also deployed in tackling the insecurity.

Mr Blair pledged support from the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom, noting that the lost glory of the country would be restored in a short while if the incoming government pursued its avowed goals.

Delta Guber: How PDP rigged us out – Otega

As election petition tribunals across the country commence hearing in cases instituted following the conduct of the last elections, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress ( APC) in Delta State, Emerhor Otega, has claimed that anomalies trailed the conduct of the elections in Delta State.

Speaking on behalf of the Delta State APC delegation which was on a congratulatory visit to the president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, in Abuja yesterday, Otega alleged that the PDP, in collaboration with security officials, disenfranchised the people of Delta at both the presidential and governorship elections.

He said: “In truth, the majority of Deltans were ready for the change you (Buhari) represent and were geared to vote massively for you and the APC; unfortunately, a grand design executed by the PDP in the south- south , particularly in Delta, Rivers and Akwa Ibom, made sure that no proper election took place.

“Result sheets were confiscated and results fabricated, written and allotted to parties, giving PDP massive votes while giving paltry votes to APC in order to portray it as not existing in the two zones.

“To provide a cover for this vote manipulation, PDP also resorted to violence and intimidation and ballot box snatching as a smokescreen. They effectively compromised both INEC and the security forces and this secured the declaration of PDP as winner in these states against the will and preferences of the Delta people and the two zones.”

Otega also alleged that INEC collaborated with the PDP to inflate the election results, maintaining that the figures declared were more than the ones recorded on the card reader accreditation.

“Through the CTC of the card reader report that we have obtained from INEC, we have unearthed the massive fraud that PDP perpetrated in Delta State. We have filed our petitions to cancel these bogus elections in the tribunal in Delta State. Our election petition shows that while the announced voter accreditation was over 1,017,796, the actual card reader accreditation report shows only 709,700. A cursory look shows that the votes allocated to the PDP governorship candidate (724,680) alone exceeded the accredited voters as recorded by the card reader report.

“With these anomalies, we are indeed very optimistic that the governorship and assembly elections in Delta State will be nullified and a rerun ordered,” Otega said.

While reiterating their support to the president-elect in addressing the challenges in the Niger Delta, Otega pleaded with the president-elect not to allow PDP in the South-South to use the resources from the region to launch the PDP back to national relevance.

“As you are aware, Delta State, along with Akwa Ibom and Rivers, are the rich oil resources and the PDP is determined to hold on to these states at all cost in order to utilize the huge revenue base of these states to re-launch itself to national reckoning.

“It is, therefore, strategic for the APC and your administration to pay particular attention and to assist us put in place modalities to break the stranglehold of the PDP in Delta and the other states, irrespective of the intent of PDP to dubiously hold on to Delta State.”

In his remark, the president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, thanked the Delta delegation just as he maintained that his administration would not support anybody who will undermine the rights of Nigerians by whatever means.

“I am very much in touch with your governor and he has kept me abreast of the running battle and I express my condolence to you for the people murdered and I assure you that my objective of remaining consistently in partisan politics is to make sure that Nigerians are given their inherent rights, as citizens of Nigerian, to choose whoever they want to lead them,” Buhari said.

“It is not a favour to them as Nigerians, but a constitutional right as citizens of this country; I will not support anybody who will undermine that right of Nigerians by whatever means.”

The incoming president also decried the use the military and other law enforcement agencies to thwart the will of the people.

“Worse still, to give drugs and weapons to unemployed youths and send them to kill their own people is the worst thing anybody aspiring to leadership can do to his country,” he stated, even as he urged aggrieved politicians to seek redress in court.

“I understand why many of you were denied the opportunity to choose those you wanted to represent and lead you and you are taking the line I took in the last 12 years, which is in line with our constitution. Whether you get it or not, the most important thing is that you believe in the system and you should continue to try until the system is perfect.”

Restating his resolve to work for the common people, Buhari avowed: “I assure you that in my first term in office, what I will concentrate on is that Nigerians will be proud to be Nigerians wherever they are. They will be respected.

“I assure you that the APC’s first objective is security and what destroyed the economy is lack of security, unemployment and aggressive youths.”