Officials of Birnin Gwari Emirate Progressive Union (BEPU) said at the weekend that it is a known fact that Birnin-Gwari Council is facing security challenge, which is affecting aspects of its development, including transportation, farming, education, economy, business among others; where about 100 communities are sacked and about 50,000 persons internally displaced across.
The Chairman of BEPU, Ishaq Kasai, said, in a statement, that the only way successful elections can be guaranteed is to appease terrorists who have infiltrated the communities.
He said: “As we are approaching the general elections, our major concern is our people, including the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), who are supposed to be given opportunity to exercise their franchise at their respective secondary locations to vote their preferred candidates without fear or intimidation.”
However, Kasai commended the effort made by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in relocating some of the Poling Units (PU) from sacked communities to various points where eligible voters relocated, and are residing as IDPs.
He said: “This will, indeed, go along way in providing them the opportunity to exercise their franchise.”
“The second issue is on facilitating movements of the election officials and materials on election day to various units in the council, especially to areas where security problems are high, such as Eastern and Western parts of the council.
“There are 11 wards in Birnin-Gwari and 10 of them are having security challenges that, if measures are not taken, would hinder election processes.”
Kasai, however, noted that they are aware of arrangements being made locally to address these challenges, especially by establishing contact with respective terrorist groups in most hostile areas to allow for the successful conduct of elections in the area.
He added: “This same approach was adopted successfully during the Census Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) that took place recently where, with the permission of bandits, all areas were visited by census functionaries and demarcated.”
