How NSCDC will check violence during gov poll – Spokesman

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, on Monday, said it is ready for the governorship and state Houses of Assembly polls, noting that violence-prone areas during the presidential election have been discovered and will be addressed.

The PUNCH reports that the presidential and National Assembly elections were held nationwide on 25 February but they were marred by violence in some parts of the country.

The situation led to loss of lives and disruption of the voting process in many areas. In some areas, the Independent National Electoral Commission postponed elections until the next day over violence.

The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, stated that some Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machines were snatched from electoral officials in Katsina, Delta, among other states.

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However, speaking with our correspondent on Monday, the spokesperson for the NSCDC, Olusola Odumosu, gave assurance that the March 11 elections would be violence-free as voters were urged to come out en masse to vote.

He stated that flashpoints had been assessed by the corps and the security agency had improved on its strategies to secure such areas, adding that areas without violence would also be secured.

Odumosu said, “The areas where there was violence during the presidential and National Assembly elections have been noted and we are going to put in more efforts to ensure violence-free governorship and state House of Assembly polls.

“Normally, what we do is that after an election like this, we go back to the table in order to assess our performances and the activities that went down with the election and from there, we look at areas where there need to be more attention and then, the corps make necessary deployment to cover such areas for subsequent exercise.

“Generally, because of the nature of Nigeria’s politics, there is a need to constantly educate and enlighten Nigerians on the need to protect and sustain our democratic values in a very civilised manner.

“We hope that Nigerians will learn because there is no way we can develop as a nation without democratising. We need to appreciate our democracy and be law-abiding, so that we can go out to vote without violence or rancour.

“We will deploy our personnel appropriately to areas we’ve discovered to be flashpoints. There are areas that were not flashpoints before the presidential election that gave serious concerns during the elections. We have taken notice and we will do the needful to stop those activities that are inimical to the success of the next election.”