The Military on Monday assured Nigerians that the 2023 elections would hold peacefully in the South-East states and in all parts of the country in spite of threats by criminal elements.
The Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor, gave the assurance in Abuja at the 25th edition of the President Muhammadu Buhari’ (PMB) Scorecard Series.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the edition featured the Minister of Defence, retired Gen. Bashir Magashi, who presented the scorecard of the ministry.
Responding to a question on the threat by the Simon Ekpa led faction of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), to stop the elections in the south east zone, Irabor said no person or group can stop the polls.
“The armed forces is working in concert with the Police and other security agencies to ensure that the menace of criminalities from IPOB and Eastern Security Network are eliminated,” he said.
Irabor also corroborated the position of the Defence Minister that “no territory of Nigeria is under the control of the Boko Haram or any other terrorists group.”
He said all communities in the North-East zones of the country had been liberated from the criminal elements.
Irabor said the military was on the mission for final cleansing of the North-East region from terrorists.
He reiterated that the fact that the military had not ceased operation in the region did not mean that the terrorists were still occupying any portion of the nation’s territory. (NAN)
However, 12 days to the 2023 general elections in Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said voting will not hold in 240 Polling Units (PUs).
Daily Champion gathered that the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu made this disclosure on Monday during a meeting with leaders of political parties.
Yakubu stated nobody chose to vote in these polling units.
At the meeting, the electoral body also revealed that 1,574,000 polling agents registered to be at the PUs nationwide.
Furthermore, Yakubu told the leaders of political parties that INEC met with service chiefs to guarantee the security of election officials.
He said, “there are 240 polling units without registered voters spread across 28 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). They range from one polling unit to 12 polling units in each State and the FCT, except Taraba and Imo States with 34 and 38 polling units respectively. No new registrants chose the polling units and no voters indicated interest to transfer to them during the last Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), mainly for security reasons. This means that no elections will hold in these polling units.
“In our avowed commitment to transparency, the Commission is making available to Nigerians a comprehensive list of these polling units by name, code number and their locations by State, Local Government and Registration Area. With this development, the number of polling units where elections will hold nationwide on 25th February 2023 and 11th March 2023 is now 176,606. Hard copies of the list are included in your folders for this meeting. Above all, Nigerians deserve the right to know the locations of these polling units. Accordingly, the soft copy of the list has been uploaded to our website and social media platforms for public information and guidance.
“Closely related to the distribution of voters is the identification of polling units. From the feedback we received from our officials and accredited observers following the recent nationwide mock accreditation using the BVAS, it is clear that some voters could not easily identify their polling units. This should not happen on election day. Consequently, the Commission is advising voters to confirm the locations of their polling units through a dedicated portal on our website. In addition, all voters who have been assigned to new polling units will receive text messages from the Commission indicating their polling units.
“We have also compiled the register of such voters and our State offices will give it wide publicity, especially for those who may not have provided their telephone numbers during voter registration or those whose numbers may have changed. Voters can locate and confirm their polling units before election day by sending a regular text or WhatsApp message to a dedicated telephone number. Details of the simple procedure will be uploaded to our social media platforms shortly.
“As you are already aware, we have less than two weeks to the 2023 General Election. The Commission is finalising the issuance of 1,642,386 identification tags for the Polling and Collation Agents nominated by the 18 political parties made up of 1,574,301 Polling Agents and 68,085 Collation Agents. I urge the Chairmen and leaders of political parties to ensure that only agents accredited by the Commission and wearing the correct identification tags appear at polling units and collation centres during elections. A situation where two or more agents claim to represent a political party, resulting in commotion at polling units or collation centres, is unacceptable. Only Identification tags issued by the Commission will be recognised on election day and violators are liable to arrest and prosecution for impersonation.
“Turning to the ongoing electioneering campaigns, the Commission is concerned about violent attacks on supporters of political parties across the board, resulting in the loss of life in some cases. Let me once again appeal to Chairman and leaders of political parties to continue to call your candidates and supporters to order. I also call on the security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies to arrest, investigate and prosecute anyone involved in violent conduct, including incendiary statements capable of inciting a breach of the peace.”
Meanwhile, he bemoaned the lawsuits against INEC, saying 18 political parties have over 1,200 cases at the Federal High Courts alone — more than when the commission was dealing with 91 political parties.
