A political pressure group within the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Buhari Campaign Organisation (BCO), has expressed the hope that President Muhammadu Buhari will get 80 per cent of the votes in Rivers State in 2019 general elections.
BCO national coordinator, Danladi Bala Pasalli, disclosed this yesterday in Port Harcourt while speaking at an empowerment programmme and inauguration of the Rivers and Bayelsa states’ liaison offices of the organisation.
Pasalli, who described Rivers State as the home of APC and Buhari, said the present administration has confronted Boko Haram insurgency head on, reclaiming all the territories that were before now, occupied by insurgents.
He said: “People are asking why we are supporting President Muhammadu Buhari for a second term in 2019 and my answer is this; recall that in 2014, we could not sit in a hall like this without fear of being attacked. You cannot go into a hall with a bag without being asked to open it due to fear of bombs.
“Under the former President, Boko Haram attacked Abuja; they attacked the Force headquarters and they also attacked the Sani Abacha Barracks. They looked unstoppable until President Buhari came on board.
“Under the former President, we lost over 1 million people in the North-East and North-West to Boko Haram. The funds budgeted to fight insecurity in the North were diverted and shared by our own brothers. One of them is still in detention.”
He stated that the Buhari-led administration has created a lot of economic programmes, including N-Power programme and the Anchor-Borrower programme, aimed at uplifting the lives of Nigerians.
Earlier in his welcome address, coordinator of BCO in Rivers State, Godwin Joshua Ezebalike, said the organisation is prepared to work for the reelection of Buhari in 2019.
Ezebalike said: “We are sincerely committed to ensuring that the quality of life of an average Nigerian and indeed our future generations is secured and adequately protected.
“We are convinced beyond doubts that the only way we could guarantee better future for our tomorrow is through good governance and sincere leadership and the only way to achieving this is for us to collectively ensure that President Muhammadu Buhari returns in 2019.”