Insecurity: Political Parties Rule out Protesting Election Outcome in Borno

By Michael Olugbode in Maiduguri

Political parties in Borno State have ruled out protesting the outcome of the forthcoming elections due to the delicate security situation in the state.

The state has been bedevilled by Boko Haram crisis for a decade now, which has made any form of protest to be outlawed.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Nigeria Police towards the forthcoming elections, one of the representatives of a political party, the Borno State Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Bello Ayuba, said: “We will not rampage or protest over election because the state has had its fair share of violence.

“We have had enough killings, death, shedding of blood in Borno State and we will not do anything that will further promote it.”

On his part, Asheikh Abba-Aji, Chairman, Social Democrats, said they have already started telling their supporters not to be violent during the next elections.

He said: “We assured all of peaceful election. We are going to accept defeat. We will tell our supporters to behave well, we cannot have a government or state when there is war.”

The Deputy Inspector General of Police deployed to the North-east to oversee the elections, Usman Tilli, promised that the elections would not only be free and fair but would be clean.

He said: “We have deployed quite a good number of personnel, comprising the police and other security agencies.”

He disclosed that the police has not yet got the contestants together to sign the peace path due to ongoing campaigns in the state.

He promised that the police have made necessary preparations towards peaceful election.

Also speaking at the occasion, the Borno State Commissioner of Police Damian Chukwu revealed that 11,000 policemen would be deployed with additional 3,000 deployed from other security agencies.