Former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, said there is nothing wrong in people from West Africa countries participating in the ongoing rallies by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate President Muhammadu Buhari.
Criticism was all over the social media Thursday over the picture of two Chadian state governors who attended Kano presidential rally on the ruling party.
Speaking with newsmen on Friday in Abuja, at a-day workshop organised by the APC Presidential Campaign Council field operations directory, for its canvassers, director of the unit Mallam Ribadu said it is the constitutional right of everyone to be where he wants to be, adding that people from West Africa also free to move into Nigeria even during the campaign.
“For your information, it is a free world and it is the constitutional right of everyone to be where he wants to be. You have no right to curtail anybody from doing what he wants to do. People from West Africa are free to move into Nigeria.
“We have a protocol or agreement that they don’t need a visa to come into this country. I know for sure that they don’t have the vote but as a free West African who believe that someone has done extremely very well, and decided to identify himself with what he believes in, I don’t think there is anything wrong and I don’t think there is any crime committed.
“You cannot and you have no right as a Nigerian to stop them from exercising their fundamental right to identify with his friends.
“Their presence may or may not half any impact on the re-election but they are entitle to it. We have to guarantee their freedom because their presence is within the law and we don’t have right to stop them.”
While addressing the canvassers who came from from all the 36 states of the federation for the training, Ribadu told the gathering the need to join hands together to rescue Nigeria and refuse to go back to the era it was before Buhari came in.
“We have to join hands together to rescue this nation, we don’t want things to go bad like they were before. We don’t want anyone to steal from our own common again. We don’t want anyone to come and sell some things that are belong to all of us to his own few friends. We want justice and fairness, we want to show tnat nobidy is above the law in our own country.
“You (the canvassers) are all believers. You people make this sacrifice as volunteers that have agreed to come collectively to improve ourselves and go to the field. We intend to ho to every single door, every single house, every single Armlet, you are going to train others who are also going to carry out this responsibility.
“I know that we are prepared and we khave the best people that are going to do the work for us. We are not rich but we will deliver Muhammadu Buhari insha Allah.”
Also speaking at the event, director general, Consumer Protection Council (CPC) Babatunde Irukera, urged the canvassers to visit all the nook and cranny of the country to convince voters to chose APC at the poll.
“Unless we go out to get people we will still not win the reelection. The only strategy against whatever they (oppositions) are strategizing on is an overwhelming margins and so we must make sure that the voters turnout to demonstrate that there is an overwhelming popularity.
“All that seems to be the pressure from the international community about the transparency of our election, don’t worry about. The way to deal about that is an overwhelming numbers and once we have those numbers the only thing they would say is that it doesn’t matter to them, whatever the case maybe this election represents substantially the free will of the people of Nigeria.”
