With less than 48 hours to the governorship elections in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo states, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) Thursday warned those planning to disrupt the poll of the injurious consequences of their action.
The warning came as the opposition Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) continued to bicker over the poll.
While the PDP warned of dire consequences for election riggers, the APC and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) raised the alarm over the arrest of their supporters by security agencies in Kogi state.
DHQ warns
But speaking at a media parley in Abuja Thursday, Director Defence Media Operations Defence Headquarters, Major General Edward Buba, said the military was aware of plans by miscreants to disguise themselves in military uniforms in order to disrupt the election process. He warned them to desist or regret their actions.
He said: “We are aware of plans of some to disguise themselves in military gear to orchestrate havoc and disrupt elections in some areas. Our message to such a group is that there will be injurious consequences for such an action. The military will not fold its arms and watch its image dragged to the mud.
“Election is a serious business and the military is giving it the seriousness it deserves. So much is being put in place, troops and platforms are being deployed to those locations to reinforce security that is already in place in those states.”
Troops’ successes
Speaking on the successes recorded by the military in different theatres of operation across the country in the last one week, the defence spokesperson said the military neutralised 113 terrorists and arrested 300 of them.
He also said troops arrested 25 perpetrators of oil theft and rescued 91 kidnapped hostages in different parts of the country.
“In the South South region of the country troops denied oil thieves crude worth the sum of Five Hundred and Seventy One Million Seven Hundred and Ninety Three Thousand Three Hundred and Fifty Naira (N571,793,350.00) only,” he said.
Buba said troops of Operation Delta Safe in the Niger Delta area discovered and destroyed 76 dugout pits, 35 boats, 95 storage tanks, 10 vehicles, 129 cooking ovens, 5 pumping machines, 13 speedboats, 6 outboard engine, one vessel, 3 motorcycles and 49 illegal refining sites.
“Troops recovered 514,640 litres of stolen crude oil, 339,315 litres of illegally refined AGO and 775 litres of DPK,” he said.
The military spokesman also disclosed that troops recovered 129 assorted weapons and 717 assorted ammunition from criminal elements across the country.
“One Unserviceable AA gun, one RPG tube, 5 RPG bombs, one GT3 rifle, 54 AK47 rifles, 8 locally fabricated rifles, one locally made rifle, 2 pistols, 2 pump action guns, 2 dane guns, 4 locally fabricated pistol, 3 skeleton of AK47 rifles, 9 hand grenades, one unserviceable AK47 rifle, 14 magazines, 321 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, 40 live cartridges.
“Others are: 53 rounds of 5.45mm x 39mm ammo, 35 rounds of 7.62mm NATO, 100 rounds of shotgun, 11 rifle body, 7 breech block, 7 rifle butts, 8 rifle muzzles, 9 piston assembles, 210 springs, one drilling machine, hand filling machines, 10 magazine purges, IED making materials, 4 boafeng radios, 15 motorcycles, 20 mobile phones and the sum of N348,200.00 amongst other items,” Buba said.
Expressing confidence that the criminal elements were being defeated, he said: “There is no doubt that these groups must be defeated and are indeed being defeated. It is for these reasons we are inflicting severe damage on the terrorist, insurgents and violent extremists through our operations across the country. Accordingly, we are targeting their leadership, infrastructure and foot soldiers.
“The coordination between the air and ground forces is like never seen before and yielding amazing results and achievements. We are expecting new platforms that would further enhance our capabilities to further root out the terrorists and destroy their military capabilities.”
…Ododo raises the alarm
In a related development,the APC governorship candidate in Kogi state, Usman Ododo, has raised the alarm over alleged clampdown on members of his campaign organisation by security agencies.
Speaking to newsmen Thursday in Lokoja, the APC guber said those arrested Tuesday in Kogi East senatorial district were “noble” people with no hand in thuggery, and therefore called for their release.
“My members have been arrested, some of my leaders, even in my community, this morning, they have picked not less than seven of my members,” he added.
“I allowed them to do their work. I will not interfere with their investigation. I believe by the time they are done with their investigation and none of them is found guilty, they will be released. I have advised my followers not to engage in any criminality because I don’t condone it.
“My members that they have picked, it is still based on allegations. Let them do their investigations and I believe they will do that without bias. As soon as they are done, they will be released.
“But in a situation where security agents are harassing and detaining my members without saying what offence they have committed, I want to call on them to release them and face those criminals that went to Kotonkarfe to kill an APC supporter and get them arrested.
“That is what they should focus on and not the law abiding members of our party. So I call on them to hasten their investigations and release our members with immediate effect,” Ododo said.
Commenting on alleged witch-hunt by the opposition, the APC standard bearer said: “If you see somebody jumping from one TV station to the other desperately every day, leaving where he is supposed to be doing groundwork and courting voters, you should know that if nothing is chasing him, then he is chasing something. They know they don’t have a chance. They are just engaging in fruitless propaganda.
“As for us in the APC, we know we are winning. Governor Yahaya Bello has done the people proud and it is time to reward the party. The reward of hard work is more work and we are ready to serve again. We won’t join issues with losers who have only ethnic agenda and violence in their dictionary. The APC government has served all the zones equitably and there are ample results to show for it. We are coming to serve them even better.”
He called on his supporters to come out en masse Saturday to vote for the APC, saying a vote for APC is a vote for unity, peace and progress of the state.
…SDP too
Making similar allegation, spokesperson of the SDP campaign organisation, Faruk Adejoh-Audu, in a telephone interview, claimed the state government was unleashing thugs and security agents on party members.
“Our party secretariat in Lokoja has been burnt down three times, two of which were done in broad daylight and nobody is held accountable for it,” Mr Adejoh-Audu said.
“The thugs are armed and clothed with uniforms and are out to kill anyone opposed to the governor and his candidate,” he alleged.
PDP warns poll riggers
But the PDP has warned those planning to rig the election during the polls.
PDP National Publicity Secretary Debo Ologunagba said this in a statement issued Thursday in Abuja.
The statement said: “Our Party restates that it will never allow anybody, no matter how highly placed to manipulate the electoral process in the governorship election in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa States.
“In fact, our Party states in clear terms that anybody who attempts to rig or manipulate the election in any way may have to deal with the legitimate wrath of the people.
“The PDP specifically cautions Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, Yahaya Bello of Kogi State and his puppet candidate, Usman Ododo, to accept their rejection by the people for their abysmal failure in government and get ready to concede defeat on Saturday.
“The PDP reaffirms that all indices from several Entrance Polls indicate that the PDP candidates are leading and will sweep the governorship election in the three States. Any electoral trajectory that does not reflect the clear tide of the Will of the people at the Polling Units will be firmly resisted.
“In Imo State, the PDP confirms that it has received messages and visits from many prominent Imo State citizens, including major industrialists and businessmen wherein they expressed their support for the PDP Candidate, Senator Samuel Anyanwu.
“These prominent Imo citizens have also denied their reported support and donation of funds to the APC and its governorship candidate, Governor Hope Uzodimma.
“Of course, no well-meaning citizen of Imo State will lend support to Governor Hope Uzodimma whose administration has wrecked the economy of the State, brought untold hardship to the people and turned Imo State into a theater of violence, killings and kidnapping.
“Our Party challenges Governor Uzodimma to make public the names of the Imo State citizens he claimed to have donated money to his campaign so that the people can identify the enablers of insecurity and hardship that his administration represents in the last three years.”
Police explain arrest
But the Police spokesperson in the state, William Aya, said the raid was based on an intelligence report on hideouts of political thugs planning to disrupt the election.
Aya, in a statement, said during a gun duel with the “thugs,” security agents killed some of them, arrested several others and recovered two AK47 rifles. (Additional reports from Premium Times)
