NGO calls for adequate security ahead of Kano local elections

From Noah Ebije, Kaduna

Ahead of Saturday’s Kano State local government elections, Citar NGO, a Kaduna-based organisation, has called on the Chairman of Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC), Garba Ibrahim Sheka, to ensure adequate security for the elections.

Sheka was reported to have indicated on Wednesday during an opening ceremony of a one-day training for civil society election observers that the local elections would be war-like.

Citar NGO Executive Secretary Muhammad Alhaji Yakubu said in a statement that officials of the organisation were in Kano recently in preparation for observing the state’s forthcoming local government election.

The statement reads:

‘It has become very necessary to call on all good citizens of Kano State to jointly ensure peaceful local government elections and beat the imagination of our adversaries who are expecting otherwise. Kano is more than just a state but a regional nerve to preserve. Therefore, we should ensure beating the records to give a wonderful election activity amidst the Corona challenge. As we mobilise to Kano for a great experience, we wish all democrats a great experience.

‘We are calling on KANSIEC chairman not to raise a panic alarm, but to do the needful and ensure adequate security provision before, during and even after the election.

‘We want the KANSIEC chairman to make use of the experience he acquired from witnessing elections in Kogi, Gombe and Borno State where he said they were conducted peacefully.

‘We are not comfortable with his statements that elections in Kano are always war-like and as if the entire world is coming to an end.

‘We are of the hope and belief that the election will begin and end peacefully if the security agencies are properly mobilised to all the locations to protect all stakeholders in case of any eventuality, which we are not in anyway praying for.

‘The Citar NGO is a Kaduna based democracy and good governance organisation which was established in the year 2000.

‘We were recently in Kano as a preliminary polity status evaluation toward the forthcoming local government election in the state.

‘The visit served as a joint take up moment in the organisation’s scheduled collaborative election monitoring and observation in Kano and the country in general.