Army Vows Tough Action Against Perpetrators Of Electoral Violence
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Ahead of the March 9, 2019 Governorship and House of Assembly elections, the Nigerian Army says it will deal decisively with persons planning to perpetrate any form of violence during the polls.
Addressing senior officers of the Army in Abuja, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieut. Gen. Tukur Buratai said the army would enforce all guidelines in support of the Nigeria Police Force to ensure the peaceful conduct of the elections in line with its constitutional roles.
The Army chief said, “We shall be tough on those who plan to rig or disrupt the electoral process.
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“I, therefore, want to appeal to Nigerian youths to shun any attempt by any politician to use them to perpetrate any form of violence.”
According to him, “Recent security threat assessment and analysis of the coming elections show that politicians have made plans to use all means available to truncate the peaceful conduct of the elections.”
He said part of the plan to disrupt the elections involves the use of the farmers/herders crisis, armed political thugs and ethnic militia 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 of the social media for the smear campaign, hate speeches and spread fake news,” said Lieut. Gen. Buratai.
Against the backdrop of the killing of the young officer and soldiers during the Presidential and National Assembly elections, the Chief of Army Staff gave the assurance that those desperate politicians and criminals that attacked the troops would be tracked down and brought to justice.