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Vows to petition security agencies
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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has accused village heads of threatening the electorate, especially non-indigenes, with banishment if they fail to vote for a particular political party in this weekend’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections.
The opposition party, which expressed disappointment over the actions of the village heads, stated that it will officially petition security agencies to caution the traditional rulers against such banishment threats.
Making the disclosure in a chat with newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday, the party’s chairmanship candidate for AMAC, Comrade Eze Onyebuchi Chukwu, lamented the incumbent chairman’s negative politics ahead of the election.
While responding to his fear for the poll, he said, “Our party members have informed us about cases where village heads are issuing threats to the electorate that if anyone fails to vote for a particular political party to be re-elected for a second tenure, they will be banished from their kingdoms, or they will be beaten up.”
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“We have gotten a lot of calls from one particular community, which we are already perfecting arrangements to report to the security agencies. So we will be calling on the security to watch out for some of the village chiefs who will be issuing threats against non-indigenes living in their communities. They are already trying to bring that kind of politics into it,” he expressed his fear for the election.
Another issue he singled out as his fear is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) living up to the expectations, noting, “For INEC, of course, this election is going to be a test case because the whole world is watching. The commission must prove itself to be credible and to be trusted for 2027 with this election.”
Reacting to the issue, the party’s national secretary, Ibrahim Mani, said that though it is in the realm of speculation, the party will not take it lightly with any village head culpable in such an act.
“Like he has said, politics is always like that. In every rumour there may be some iota of truth. There is always politics of impunity. Gone were the days when people would sit down and tell voters what to do. The level of awareness that people have now is beyond such threats. They are empty threats that can never carry any weight.”
“This kind of threat is always an empty threat. And we are not afraid of the people issuing such empty threats. We regard them as empty threats because they cannot influence the officials of INEC.
“Recently, INEC made its position very clear on the aspect of this election. It is going to be a test case for INEC preparing for the major election coming up in 2027. All eyes are on INEC, and we expect INEC to do the right thing. INEC is not going to fail. We trust INEC. INEC has done it in Anambra State. INEC will replicate this in FCT. We believe they will do it,” he said.
