Corpers’ exodus, insecurity may affect guber polls
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is complaining of office accommodation in order to conduct the Saturday polls. Many of the commission’s offices in some parts of the North were razed down during the mayhem. Though the governorship election has been postponed in some states where the violence was intense, the electoral body still has […]
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is complaining of office accommodation in order to conduct the Saturday polls. Many of the commission’s offices in some parts of the North were razed down during the mayhem. Though the governorship election has been postponed in some states where the violence was intense, the electoral body still has issues of office accommodation to contain with. Also, security of election materials is another headache for the commission.
In Bauchi State, for example, many people lost their lives including students of the Federal Polytechnic, NYSC ad hoc staffers and four offices of the INEC. The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Senator Iliya Audu said the incidents drew them back. “But we are working hard to make sure we conduct the gubernatorial election without hitches,” he told Weekly Trust.
Senator Iliya said an officer was molested in Misau, while four INEC offices have been burnt down in Bauchi, Dambam, Misau and Jama’are local governments while 500 laptops used for the voters registration exercise were looted by the irate youths. “I was very much saddened with what people have done to the commission’s offices in Bauchi and others towns in the state,” he said.
Bauchi State governor, Isa Yuguda, told 600 of the corps members evacuated from some parts of the state and accommodated at the Staff Development Center and the army barracks that government is committed to their safety. While urging them to remain calm, he consoled their parents and the NYSC directorates on the sad occurrence, assuring that the state government has put in place measures to ensure safety of corps members.
Director-General of the NYSC, General Maharazu I. Tsiga, who was visibly worried over the incident, said arrangements are being made to evacuate all the corps members from Bauchi to their various home states, saying: “Our concern is to ensure your safety by organising a convoy of vehicles that will take you to the nearest safe place so that you will be reunited with your families.”
Amidst shouts of ‘We want to go home’ from the corps members, the NYSC DG declared that from the present situation, “The corps members may not be used for the remaining elections since they have been made targets by criminals.”
Residents of the affected areas who are taking refuge in some barracks and camps have automatically been disenfranchised. The rule is that if you are not registered, you cannot vote.
However, the security agencies seem not to have any logistics arrangement to escort prospective voters to their original polling units to cast their votes and return to the camps and barracks they are temporary staying at. Essentially, security could encourage a wide vacuum by making voters unable to come out to participate. Another factor come Tuesday would be the divide along fault lines that the voting pattern would take. The ethno-religious lines would be more glaring than they were during the previous polls.
In Niger State, some voters could face disenfranchisement, not as accidental as that of people in refugee camps. In their case, they are saddened with the result of the presidential elections and have decided to destroy their voter cards. It is widely alleged most of the CPC supporters have allegedly burnt their voter’s cards in protest for the outcome of the last Saturday presidential election.
The act of burning their voter’s cards would stop them from voting for the party in the Tuesday governorship election which would have been their opportunity to get at the rival Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). According to Danjuma Musa, who spoke to Weekly Trust on the matter, the final results that revealed Buhari lost at the polls has prompted him to destroy his voter’s card. “I have no reason for keeping it,” he said.
Speaking with Weekly Trust, Richard Aliyu, an Abuja-based schoolteacher reeled out what he said are the major challenges before the electoral body. “With the fleeing Youth Corps members from the North, who’ll do their job? For voters that have fled their polling areas, where and how would they vote?” Big questions, indeed.