New Telegraph

Election must hold in 2023, says Buhari

…vows to hunt down sponsors of insurrection

President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, vowed to do everything possible to ensure the conduct of the 2023 general elections to pave the way for the transfer of power to another democratically elected government in Nigeria. The President made this vow after receiving a briefing from the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu, on the series of attacks on facilities of the electoral management body around the country. Buhari, according to a release by his spokesman, Femi Adesina, insisted that the government would provide the INEC with all that is required to conduct the 2023 general elections to avoid a constitutional crisis. “There will be no excuse for failure. We’ll meet all INEC’s demands, so that no one would say we don’t want to go or that we want a third term,” he said.

The President warned that those bent on destroying the country through the promotion of insurrection and burning down of critical national assets would receive a rude shock very soon. “I receive daily security reports on the attacks, and it is very clear that those behind them want this administration to fail.

“Insecurity in Nigeria is now mentioned all over the world. All the people who want power, whoever they are, you wonder what they really want. Whoever wants the destruction of the system will soon have the shock of their lives. We’ve given them enough time,” he said.

According to the President, the victory he recorded in the 2019 election attested to his acceptance across the 36 states of the country even as he promised to lead the country in accordance with the provisions of the constitution. He said those fomenting trouble in certain parts of the country were obviously too young to know the travails and loss of lives that attended the Nigerian civil war. “Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand. We are going to be very hard sooner than later,” Buhari said. The President said the Service Chiefs and the Inspector General of Police have been changed, “and we will demand security from them.”

The INEC boss, while briefing the President, said that so far, there have been 42 cases of attacks on INEC offices nationwide, since the last general election. “The 42 incidents so far occurred in 14 states of the federation for a variety of reasons. Most of the attacks happened in the last seven months, and they are unrelated to the protests against previous elections. From the pattern and frequency of the most recent attacks, they appear to be targeted at future elections. The intention is to incapacitate the Commission, undermine the nation’s democracy and precipitate a national crisis,” Yakubu said.

It would be recalled that many prominent Nigerians and political analysts had warned that worsening insecurity in different regions of Nigeria, particularly, the recent spike in attacks against INEC, could pose a serious threat to the 2023 general elections.

Read Previous

Oil price hits two-year-high at $70.20/barrel

Read Next

Islamiyya students: Bandits contact Head Teacher, demand N110m ransom

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *