Cash crunch is election rigging – Gbajabiamila

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has described scarcity of cash and fuel at the twilight of election as a plot for rigging.

Gbajabiamila stated this in Lagos on Thursday during his constituency outreach programme where he distributed several items including 116 cars, thousands of laptops, among other items to the beneficiaries.

He also inaugurated the 8 mini stadia and provided over 5000 laptops and E-learning tabs for students and teachers in public secondary schools in surulere in addition to the empowerment of 15,200 surulere traders, artisans and SMEs in 3 years.

Speaking at the programme, he stressed that the biting economic situation in the country was a premeditated action to dissuade voters from voting the All Progressive Congress, (APC) Presidential candidate, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Daily Trust reports that Nigerians have been battling scarcity of cash in the last one month following the implementation of the Naira redesign policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with many commercial banks running out of cash.

But the Speaker in his remarks stated that the crisis caused by the policy was a plot to rig the elections.

He said, “I was telling some people the other day, when people talk about rigging election, they talk about on the day of the election, they do not know that rigging sometimes starts before election.

“What has happened in Nigeria in the past three weeks, no cash, money in the past weeks, that is noting but rigging the election. It is done for a purpose and the only purpose is to make sure that the man Nigerians love does not win the election.

“But you know why I am happy, I take solace from one thing that God is a wonderful God, that with all their permutations, I see God’s hand in this project.”

He said despite the plot to rig the election with the cash swap policy, there is a huge assurance from Nigerians to come out in full force and cast their vote for Tinubu.

“People are singing in the North, East and West that whether you lock up all the money, close the door to the filling stations, people are saying they will come out to vote,” he said.

He appreciated members of his constituency in Surulere for their support for him since he was first elected as a member of the house in 2003, saying that this makes it 20 years of service.

He said in the past 20 years, he has sustained the constituency outreach programme and also implemented several projects that have impacted greatly on his constituents.

(Daily Trust)