Army uncovers plans to disrupt gubernatorial elections on Saturday

The Chief of Army Staff, (COAS), Lt Gen Tukur Buratai has revealed that the force had uncovered plans by some politicians to truncate the peaceful conduct of the governorship and state houses of assembly elections on Saturday.

Briefing Principal Staff Officers, General Officers Commanding, Operations Commanders and Directors on Wednesday, at the Army Headquarter in Abuja, the COAS called on all Commanders to be vigilant and frustrate every antic of politicians to cause mayhem and confusion during the Governors and state Houses of Assembly elections.

Buratai applauded the officers for the professional manner in which they executed his directives for Operation SAFE CONDUCT noting that the proactive intervention of Nigerian Army in the recently concluded Presidential and National Assembly Elections contributed greatly to its successful conduct and credibility.

In his words, Buratai reiterated that “Recent security threat assessment and analysis of the coming elections showed that politicians have made plans to use all means available to truncate the peaceful conduct of the elections.

“There are indications of their intent to take advantage of and to use the farmers/herders crisis, armed political thugs and ethnic militias to perpetrate acts of violence including bombings.

“Some of them also intend to infiltrate domestic staff of political opponents, employ mercenaries to carry out acts of assassinations, use the social media for smear campaigns, hate speeches and spread fake news in a bid to disrupt the peaceful conduct of the elections. We must not allow them to succeed,” he noted.

The army boss further reiterated that such scenario that led to the death of an officer and three soldiers during the Presidential elections would not be allowed to repeat itself and as such handed the commanders a 12-point charge during the elections.

Among those charges included: Commanders must be vigilant to ensure that cases of infiltrations to scare off voters are not allowed; and hobnobbing and fraternization with politicians during the election period is totally prohibited.

Lt Gen Buarati, in addition among others, tasked Commanders to carry out robust and extensive patrols to cover all flash points; enforce the no movement restrictions and carryout thorough searches of vehicles and persons as well as deal decisively with any electoral crime or action such as electoral thuggery, snatching of ballot boxes, illegal possession of electoral materials and firearms as well as other crimes that could mar the smooth conduct of the election.

He regretted that despite both international and local observers and indeed the Nigeria print and electronic media applauding eligible voters to exercise their civic rights, there were still some levels of violence recorded leading to disruption of polls, burning of ballot boxes in some areas as well as loss of lives, including the death of an officer and three soldiers.

“The Nigerian Army to a larger extent ensured that the large scale electoral malpractices and acts of thuggery aimed at disenfranchising voters as witnessed in previous elections were curbed despite the campaign of calumny orchestrated by some politicians against the army.

“Let me reiterate that the NA will enforce all guidelines in support of the Nigeria Police Force to ensure the peaceful conduct of the elections in line with its constitutional roles. We shall not allow those who are determined to undermine our electoral process to succeed.

On the importance of the forthcoming gubernatorial and state assembly elections, Gen Buratai emphasized that they were very crucial; adding that it was an election that touch on the interest of the people at the grassroots and could likely be volatile in nature.

The army authority also disclosed that every persons arrested by troops of the Nigerian Army during the recently concluded elections for electoral offences, have been handed over to the police for prosecution adding that the Nigerian Army wouldn’t tolerate any acts that would undermine national security.

On alleged reports of compromises by some personnel during the elections, from some stakeholders, major political parties, Governors of Bayelsa, Oyo Ogun, and Imo States of allegations of misconduct as well as unprofessional conduct by some of our personnel, Gen Buratai noted that a high powered committee had been convened and instituted to investigate all cases of alleged misconduct by troops arising from the 2019 General Elections.

“This is aimed at ensuring that all cases are thoroughly looked into for the purpose of dispensing justice and to uphold Nigerian Army’s credibility, professionalism and apolitical stand,” Gen Buratai pointed out.