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Tuesday, 19 February 2019

President Buhari Asks Military, Police To Shoot Ballot Box Snatchers

Nigeria leader President Muhammadu Buhari has warned that anybody who attempts to snatch ballot boxes in disrupt elections will be doing so at the expense of his own life.

“I am going to warn anybody who thinks he has enough influence in his locality to lead a body of thugs to snatch boxes or to disturb the voting system, he would do it at the expense of his own life,” the President said this at the opening of the meeting of the Caucus of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in Abuja on Monday to deliberate on the postponement of the elections.
“I do not expect anybody to make any disturbance. I have briefed the law enforcement agencies and the military to identify hot spots, flashpoints and they should be prepared to move.
“They, too, would have made their own arrangement as much as possible and as resources provide as much as the country can afford it.
“And anybody who decides to snatch ballot boxes or lead thugs to disturb it (election), maybe that would be the last unlawful action he would take.
“I have directed the Police and the military to be ruthless.
He warned that security forces, including soldiers, have been put on the alert to carry out the task of securing free and fair elections.
“I want Nigeria to be respected. I am not afraid of the elections because I went round all the states.’’
Buhari said he would not encourage rigging because he campaigned vigorously, visiting all the states and has the assurances that he had done well in his campaign.
He also said that security forces and the army have been directed to man all soft targets.
He also directed governors in states controlled by APC ‘s governments to deploy committed APC members to man all the polling units and chairmen and governorship candidates in other states should ensure same.
President Buhari said that the elections should be conducted peacefully in all the 176,000 polling stations.
After the elections, he said, the government would want to know what happened that caused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to postpone elections.
“What is the need accepting incompetence? The Constitutions and law protect INEC but they should not take us for granted.
The National Assembly and the government did all they could to provide for INEC, therefore “we do not understand what has happened’’.
“We will need to go into details of what caused the postponement of the elections,’’ he warned.








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