· Warns against not holding polls in seven LGAs of Imo State
Alex Enumah in Abuja
A civil rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA), yesterday urged the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Yakubu Mahmood to order the immediate arrests and prosecution of staff of the Commission who allegedly dumped a bag filled with thousands of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) in a forest in Anambra State.
Relatedly, HURIWA has asked the Chief of Defence staff, General Lucky Irabor to ensure election holds in all the local government areas of Imo State, just as it called on the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya to deploy sufficient armed troops to Okigwe, Onuimo and Ideato North Local Council areas to provide adequate security to lives and property.
HURIWA in a statement disclosed that a senior director in INEC had alerted it of plot not to hold election in seven out of the 21 local government area councils of Imo State, due to unprecedented attacks by unidentified persons.
According to the right group, it would be the greatest crime against humanity if government, heads of military and security institutions continue to look away whilst well-armed, motivated non-state actors keep going about freely in parts of Imo State, killing, maiming and destroying choice property at will.
The National coordinator of the group, Emmanuel Onwubiko, who signed the statement was of the opinion that the sovereignty of Nigeria would be imperiled should President Muhammadu Buhari and his security agencies continue to tolerate the massive killings in Imo State.
He therefore called on the people of Imo State to stand up and procure lawful weapons and mobilise their members to protect themselves from being wiped off the World’s map by unidentified armed non state actors who were suspected to have been set up by some government officials in Imo State.
“The discovery of thousands of PVCs belonging to Igbos in Nnewi at a forest is anti-democratic, despicable and condemnable. The architects of this kind of sabotage against the people of the South-East must be uncovered.
“Nigerians have begun to see some of the reasons for the so-called low voter turnout in the South-East whose total registered voters have been listed by INEC as 10.90 million.
“HURIWA demands action to arrest the INEC staff who did this unthinkable and unspeakable electoral heist of disenfranchising millions of Igbos and sidelining them in the critical national action of voting Nigeria’s next leader.
“Also, HURIWA encourages people of the geopolitical zone and those from the five other zones in Nigeria to come out en masse and use their PVCs which is their weapon to elect responsible leaders”, the statement read in part.
