Eight days to the commencement of the 2019 general elections, the Civil Society Organisations in Akwa Ibom State have called on all the security agencies in the state to be proactive in ensuring that the elections are peaceful and non violent.
This came at the wake of insinuations and rumours strongly circulated that some politicians in the state had recruited private armies to unleash mayhem and cause violence during the elections so as to pave way for their dubious intentions.
In a press statement jointly signed by the Chairman of the CSOs, Harry Udo, together with the Secretary, Dr. Nsekpong Udoh and made available to journalists in Uyo on Thursday, the forum urged the security agencies to put up measures to forestall breakdown of law during the period.
According to the statement, “Security is germane to the success of the forthcoming elections. There are rumours and talks of private armies being raised by politicians to prosecute their nefarious and iniquitous desires.
“We are calling on security agencies to be proactive in ensuring that armies currently being recruited are not allowed to mar the sanctity of the elections. The security agencies must be neutral and must be seen to be so”
The group also urged security agencies to ensure total restriction of movement on the election days stressing that politicians should be barred from moving from one polling unit to the other on the day of election.
“The security agencies must ensure that the people of Akwa Ibom exercise their civic duties without fear of molestation. We therefore call on them to ensure strict restriction of movement on the day. The era where politicians move around polling units to harass voters must end forthwith.” They said.
On the rumour that the Resident Electoral Commissioner. Mike Igini may be redeployed before the beginning of the elections, the forum said it would resist every attempt to replace Mr. Igini at this short period of time stressing that it has confidence in the REC’s capacity to conduct credible elections in the state.
The forum also called on politicians to refrain from making incendiary statements capable of heating up the polity.
Reacting to the biker between the APC governorship candidate, Nsima Ekere and the protocol officials of governor Emmanuel on Wednesday during the INEC peace accord signing, the forum said it was unfortunate that an event organised by INEC was hijacked by the state government.
It added that bringing in the governor’s paraphernalia to an INEC event was unnecessary since the governor came for the event as a PDP governorship candidate and not as the governor of the state.
“It was quite unfortunate the way the event turned out. The idea of the governor’s protocol barring every other person from entering the hall when the governor had sitted shouldn’t have come in since the governor was invited as a candidate of a party and not as a governor.
“The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Igini when he noticed the situation tried to call back the APC governorship candidate, Nsima Ekere, but it was too late as the man (Nsima Ekere ) felt slighted and walked away.” Udoh said.
