…Urges opposition to rally round Tinubu for Nigeria to move forward

By Luminous Jannamike, Abuja

Governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress in Rivers State, Chief Tonte Ibraye, has challenged the Department of State Services to get tough with plotters of the interim national government.

Briefing journalists on Sunday in Abuja, Ibraye said the push for an Interim National Government was treasonable, adding that the plotters should be arrested.

He spoke against the backdrop of a statement issued by the secret police that some people were plotting transitional government after President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure.

The Independent National Electoral Commission had on March 1 declared Tinubu the winner of the February 25 presidential election.

The APC presidential candidate polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who got 6,984,520 votes and the Labour Party’s Peter Obi that had 6,101,533 votes.

A day after the result was declared, Atiku and Obi at separate press conferences on March 2 rejected the outcome on the grounds that the election was rigged.

Shortly afterwards, some protesters under the aegis of the Free Nigeria Movement, asked the President Buhari to annul the February 25 presidential election and set up an interim government.

However, Ibraye congratulated Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for winning the February 25 election despite the odds against him during the electioneering period, and urged the opposition to rally round Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for the nation to move forward.

The ADC Chieftain said: “I condemn the move to sponsor protests across the country to cause anarchy.

“I personally frown at the recent news going round the media that some people are capitalising and taking advantage of the confusion at this time to push, advocate or by directly or indirectly sponsoring the emergence of an interim government to replace President Muhammadu Buhari’s government instead of swearing in Chief Bola Tinubu who is the President-elect come May 29.

“I will like to say that this is unacceptable. We don’t want any kind of action that will truncate the democracy that we all have been nurturing for a very long time.

“We want Nigerians to use the right channels; bringing in a transitional or an interim government or whatever name it is disguised is criminal, alien to our constitution.

“I am calling on the security agencies to as a matter of urgency to fish out those behind this plan, arrest and prosecute them and charge them for treason because it is a reasonable felony to try to truncate our democracy.

“I also call on president Muhammadu Buhari’s government to stand by the constitution, come May 29, make a peaceful hand over of power to the president-elect that has been announced by INEC so that Nigeria will continue to remain a peaceful country and play our leadership role as the giant of Africa that we are noted for.”