Osinbajo Disputes Voter Suppression Claim by PDP

• Says APC lost some states it won in 2015

Gboyega Akinsanmi

The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has disputed claims by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar that there was voter suppression during the 2019 general election.

The vice president cited different instances to disprove the claims of the PDP, noting that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari lost some states they won in 2015.

He rejected the claims of the PDP at a meeting with seasoned diplomats and strategic investors, among others, at the Council for Foreign Relation (CFR), New York, during his recent visit to US Vice President Mike Pence.

The council is a US non-profit think-tank specialising in foreign policy and international affairs. It organised the meeting under a theme, “Nigeria’s Economic Prospects: A Conversation with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.”

The meeting was moderated by a contributor of the Consumer News and Business Channel (CNBC), Michelle Caruso-Cabrera. It also had prominent investors in attendance, most of whom were seeking more clarification on Nigeria’s business environment and ease of doing business.

During the conversation, Caruso-Cabrera questioned Osinbajo on the allegations of the PDP that Buhari deployed the power of incumbency to suppress voters in the states the opposition candidate enjoined popular support.

She, therefore, asked the vice president “to tell the gathering about his thoughts about the election, especially where turnout was incredibly low. In areas where the president received support, turnout was very high.

“In areas where he does not have a lot of support, turnout was very low. This led to credible accusations about voter suppression. Are you satisfied with the results of the election? Can you tell this audience that they were clean?”

Responding to Caruso-Cabrera’s inquiries, the vice president disputed the claims of voter suppression, saying the allegations of the opposition party was not even correct

He said: “I do not think it’s correct at all to even suggest that in areas where the president came from, there was more voter turnout. But in some other places, there was voter suppression. It is not true at all.”
He explained that there was absolutely no difference between 2015 and 2019 elections if the trend of elections in Nigeria and the figures of elections in Nigeria were analysed.

He said: “In the various places where we won in 2015, we won again. In some cases sometimes lower, sometimes higher. But we won again. In some of the places where we won in 2015, we lost in 2019. In some, we won again.

“I will give you an example just to prove that there could not have been voter suppression. In the Southwest, for instance, we lost in Oyo State in 2019. We won the state in 2015. In the North-central, also, we won Benue state in 2015. We lost now.

“The whole problem is that when people lose elections, there is a tendency for them to find all sorts of reasons why they lost the elections. You will not find a single state where even if you look at the petition of the opposition, they are at the tribunal at the moment.

“They give an example of Borno state, which they say on account of the insurgency in Borno state there should not have been such a high turnout of voters. But in their figures, the turnout is even higher.

The figures they give for the same Borno state. There’s no truth to it whatsoever.”