National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has denied alleged plans to rig the 2019 general elections by mobilising both money and electorate materials from his house at Bourdillion apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos.
Tinubu, shortly after casting his vote at his polling booth in Alausa, Lagos, said he has a right to his own money and not in custody of public funds.
A video making the rounds on social media showed bullion vans allegedly stuffed with either money or electoral materials, emerging from an apartment said to be Tinubu’s residence in Ikoyi.
Addressing reporters, Tinubu said: “Bullion vans, are those ballot papers? Where am I voting now? Is it my money or government’s money? I don’t work for government. I am not in any agency of government and let anyone come out to say I have taken any contract from the government of President Muhammadu Buhari of APC in the last five years. They should prove it.
I am on my own and I am committed to my party. So, even if I have money to spend in my premises, what’s your headache? I don’t represent any government’s agency. If I have money, I’ll give it to whomever I like; to the people free of charge, as long as it is not to buy votes. So, who are those watching my house? They must be mischief makers,” he said.
Tinubu, however, expressed satisfaction with INEC’s conduct of the rescheduled election, saying the democratic processes, just as in air travel, are bound to encounter bad weather and turbulence, after which stability is restored.
He also expressed readiness to accept the outcome of the general elections, even if the electorate vote out his party.
“I will accept it (if the election is skewed against APC). That is the people’s verdict. That is their decision. Any democrat that cannot accept the results of a free and fair election is not worthy of the name – a democrat. You must be able to accept the result of a free and fair elections,” Tinubu said