…Village heads threaten non-indigene with banishment –APGA

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 they would officially petition security agencies to caution the traditional rulers against such threat of banishment.

Making the disclosure in a chat with newsmen in Abuja, yesterday, the party’s chairmanship candidate for AMAC, Eze Onyebuchi Chukwu, decried 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 of threat by village heads to the electorate, warning that if anyone fails to vote a particular political party, they will be banished from their kingdoms or they will be beaten up.

“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 agents 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.”

Another issue he singled out as his fear is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), living up to voters’ expectations. He said: “For INEC, of course, this election is going to be a test case because the whole world is watching. The commission must prove themselves to be credible and to be trusted for 2027 with this election.”

Reacting, the party’s national secretary, Ibrahim Mani, said though it is in the realm of speculation, the party would not take it likely with any village head culpable in such an act.

“As he has said, politics is always like that. In every rumour, there may be some iota of truth.

There is always the politics of impunity. Gone are the days when people will 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.

“These kinds of threats are always empty threats 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 this 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 it to do the right thing. INEC is not going to fail. We trust it. It has done it in Anambra State. It will replicate this in FCT, we believe INEC will do it,” he said.