I regretted sabotaging PDP effort for Buhari’s victory in 2015 — Ardo
The governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the Adamawa State, Dr Umar Ardo has disclosed how he deliberately sabotaged the 2015 election against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to favour the All Progressive Party (APC).
The former PDP chieftain disclosed this in an interview with Tribune Online on his relationship with Muhammadu Buhari despite his acclaimed role in his 2015 victory.
“I remained in PDP and I ensured I pinned PDP down to pave the way for APC to win. I even went up to the Supreme Court in my suit challenging the eligibility of Jonathan to contest. The Supreme Court on November 2014 threw out the case.
“My idea was not simply how to get Buhari in, but also how to run the government in a form of an adviser to see that things are resolved. But the very day Buhari was declared president-elect, he stopped seeing me. APC took a life of its own after the strategic thinking I offered for its formation.
“I conceived the idea and when I did, I convinced Buhari and after that Tinubu was brought in. When I was conceiving the idea, I had a plan for how to operate the administration
“So, I did all this and what happened to me after. Buhari betrayed me. I did not do it because I wanted to get something from him, but my first priority was how to get things working in the country. We felt that Buhari, as a former governor of Northeastern state, would have a good insight into the area and resolve the insecurity there.”
He further described Buhari as a capable candidate who fit the profile at the time, saying, “I did it not for APC or even Buhari; I did it for the country. Buhari just fits in at that point. Buhari happened to be the only one that could fit in when Jonathan was to be removed. All Buhari needed was a good strategy.”
Ardo also added why he will challenge Governor Umaru Fintiri’s re-election at the tribunal, stating that “I see myself as a good man and went throughout the state, campaigning and seeing all interest groups. I did mobilisation and campaigned on the best manifesto in the state.
“I extracted commitment of support from virtually all these groups. Even if it is one-quarter of them that committed their support on election day, I would have won the election. But they did not and I ended up getting 6,800 votes in the election.
“The reasons are very clear. There was complete sabotage from my party, SDP. The party had been bought over before the election. While I was working, others were working on me, especially APC and PDP. Two days after the election, the party leadership showed clear betrayal.
“Where I had 100 votes, they would give me one vote there because our agents have been bought over. Most of them collected mobilisation but did not go to the polling units and those who collected the money and went colluded with the other parties.
“Only a very few agents stood firm and they are the ones who brought me the 6,800 votes. I am going to the tribunal to establish the truth.
[Tribune]
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