It was Obasanjo’s regime that started serious rigging of elections - Ikponmwen

Brigadier-General Idada Ikponmwen (retd) has blamed ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo's regime as the regime that started massive rigging of election and looting of national fund in Nigeria.

Brigadier-General Idada Ikponmwen (retd), the former Provost Marshal of the Nigeria Army has described the regime of former President Olusegun Obansanjo as the regime that begins corruption in Nigeria.

Ikponmwen, who was the defence counsel during the coup trial of former President Olusegun Obasanjo under the Abacha administration, said Obasanjo's tenure should be credited with the beginning of serious election rigging and massive looting of public fund.

In an interview granted Vanguard, Ikponmwen said: "Obasanjo’s regime which, for all practical purposes, was meant to be a democratic government turned out to be opposite of democratic governance.

Ikponmwen argued that corruption in Nigeria begins with the PDP government of Olusegun Obasanjo's regime

"It was Obasanjo’s regime that started serious rigging of elections. The 1999 November convention of the PDP after the party had won the election is a total fraud because the Obasanjo government wanted Gemade to be the Chairman of the party while the man who was more popular for that job was Sunday Awoniyi.

"The Obasanjo government manipulated the election at the convention against those who aligned with Awoniyi. The PDP government under Obasanjo introduced corruption. It was Obasanjo’s regime that started to use Ghana must go bags to bribe legislators so that things will go the way it wanted.

"The military decided to bring Obasanjo for President in order to appease Yoruba people for the wrong done to them with the nullification of Abiola’s June 12, 1993 election.

"Obasanjo had said he will do one term, and that is why the PDM led by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar decided to work with him. When the first tenure was coming to an end, he changed his mind to come back and that brought problem between him and Atiku and of course he used his presidential powers to manipulate the system.

"Obasanjo's regime carved out this new culture of intimidation, lying, bribery, yet Obasanjo still parades himself as the father of the nation whose direction must be followed; it is unfortunate. To me, Obasanjo is the worst example of a military general. The damage that his regime did will take a long time to correct.

"A man with discipline that goes with the militancy shouldn’t have done some of those things Obasanjo did while in power. These regimes of Jonathan, Yar’Adua, even Buhari, are all traceable to the legacies, of deceit, lies of the Obasanjo regime and Mr. Know All. I pray that God will forgive Obasanjo of his sins against Nigeria and Nigerians.

"The problem of Nigeria is that we have not decided what we want as the model for Nigeria.

"The North has its own agenda, the East has its own agenda, the West has its own agenda and the South-South has its own. The result of this is that we have a country where each individual is doing things just to satisfy his interest; nobody has national interest. But I can tell you that this cannot continue for too long.

"We are all witnesses to how millions of dollars have been found in the houses of judges, politicians, money was purportedly given to the NSA to fight Boko Haram but it ended in the hands of politicians to share to ensure former President Jonathan remained in government.“Even our military, it is not the military that I joined that I see today.

"Why set up a committee that is meant to put things right in the country and the report is not being looked into? That is part of the things that discredit even the Buhari administration.

"You set up a committee on how soldiers allegedly went to rig election in Ekiti, a Captain confessed and all we heard is that those implicated have been dismissed. Is dismissal a deterrent to ensure that this does not happen again in this country?"

Meanwhile, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state has challenged former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, to explain to Nigerians the source of his wealth.

Fayose urged Obasanjo to come out clean on his roles in the controversial $1.09 billion Malabu Oil deal.

The governor reiterated his demand that the former president refunds with interest, the N10 million that he was forced alongside other governors to donate to his presidential library project