The federal government says it will not tolerate any group or persons planning to disrupt the smooth conduct of the Anambra governorship election.
Babagana Moguno, national security adviser (NSA), who was represented by Sanusi Galadima, said this on Thursday at the quarterly meeting of the inter-agency consultative committee on election security (ICCES), held in Abuja.
The meeting focused on the Anambra governorship election scheduled for November 6.
Moguno appreciated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the successful conduct of recent bye-elections in the country, and attributed the success to the synergy between the commission and ICCES.
He, however, said with the current security challenges, the federal government would not tolerate plans to disrupt elections.
“With the prevalence of security threats occasioned by different dissident separatist groups in the southern region of the country, who are bent on scuttling efforts of government in achieving national cohesion and undermining the democratic processes in the country, the federal government of Nigeria will not tolerate any group or persons planning to impede smooth conduct of elections,” he said.
“While acknowledging the constitutional rights of citizens to freely express their legitimate grievances within the ambits of the law, it is also important to state that the federal government will not abdicate its constitutional responsibility of securing lives and property, as well as a secure environment for citizens to pursue their legitimate means of livelihood.
“We are poised to ensure the robust deployments before, during and after the polls, with a view to countering any threats and ensuring peaceful conduct of the polls, especially in the forthcoming off-cycle Anambra state gubernatorial election.”
Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, in his remarks, said arrangements are being made to replace lost materials and rebuild facilities destroyed, following attacks on the commission’s offices in several parts of the country.
The chairman said as part of efforts to strengthen the voter accreditation process during elections, INEC will deploy a new bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS), which has the capability for both fingerprint and facial biometric accreditation, for forthcoming elections.
Yakubu also said the commission intends to carry out a pilot phase exercise using the new BVAS device during the September 11 bye-election in Delta state.
The bye-election is for Isoko South 1 constituency in the Delta house of assembly.
