By Enyeribe Ejiogu
Former Minister of Communications, Major General Tajudeen Olanrewaju (retd) described Lagos State as a fast emerging as a mega-city which calls for a special attention of the military and other security services during the forthcoming elections.
General Olanrewaju, a former General Officer Commanding (GOC), Third Armoured Division Nigerian Army, made the observation while reacting to the statement credited to the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Lucky Irabor, on the urgency and necessity of deploying defence forces against threats by renegade elements of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), who have declared that elections would not hold in the Southeastern part of the country.
He said Lagos being “Nigeria’s most complex federating unit, should be included among other states requiring special security attention. He urged the Military High Command and other security organisations to take particular look at major flash points in Lagos during elections, to ensure that miscreants won’t have the freedom to disrupt the process.
Olanrewaju called on the top military leadership to act urgently, in the light of the recent viral audio in which a local official was heard threatening violence against residents in Igbarra, Jakande, in Etiosa Local Government Area, Lagos State, who fail to vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming elections.
General Olanrewaju said: “We need this military assurance that a free, fair, and credible election will be held in Lagos State. We implore the Federal Government to deploy the military before, during and after the February 25 election.
“There are many flash points in Lagos State that make casting votes very difficult because of the activities of thugs, miscreants and street urchins. They are often used to create senseless disturbances in the strongholds of opponents, rendering acceptance of results untenable.”
Irabor had assured Nigerians of the preparedness of the military to ensure that this year’s elections would hold peacefully in the Southeast states and other parts of the country, in spite of threats by criminal elements. The CDS gave the assurance in Abuja at the 25th edition of the President Muhammadu Buhari Scorecard Series, which featured the Minister of Defence, Major General Bashir Magashi (retd), who presented the scorecard of the Ministry of Defence.
(Continued on www.sunnewsonline.com)
Responding to a question on the threat by the Simon Ekpa-led faction of IPOB to stop the elections in the Southeast Zone, Irabor said no person or group can stop the polls.
“The military is working in concert with the police and other security agencies, to ensure that the menace of criminalities from IPOB and Eastern Security Network are eliminated,” he said.
Irabor also corroborated the position of the Minister of Defence that “no territory of Nigeria is under the control of the Boko Haram or any other terrorist group,” adding that all communities in the Northeast Zone of the country had been liberated from the criminal elements.