By Muhammad Nur Tijani
#TrackNigeria: The Kano Concerned Citizens Initiative (KCCI) has urged security agencies to remain alert from now until the formal declaration of the re-run elections’ results in the state.
The group’s Chairman, Alhaji Bashir Tofa, alongside other members of the group, made the call while addressing newsmen on Monday in Kano.
Tofa said that KCCI was determined to ensure that acts of political violence were decisively dealt with before, during and after and the elections.
He said the elders would do everything possible to protect the state, saying that they would not allow the area to burn on account of ambition of an individual.
He also said that adequate number of security personnel must be detailed to each of the 234 polling units in more than 88 registration areas (wards) in 30 local government areas to make up for the 141,694 votes cancelled by INEC.
Tofa, the Presidential flag bearer of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC), also urged security agencies to be upright and above board and completely nonpartisan in discharging their duties.
“They have done well during the previous elections but the re-run exercise may yet prove to be more arduous and daunting. We expect them to once more emerge with flying colours,’’ he said.
Tofa also called on political leaders to desist from unguarded utterances capable of inflaming passion, which could trigger violence.
“Open monetary and other unlawful inducements must never be condoned or countenanced during the re-run elections.
“Kano people shall never allow our state to burn on account of any body’s vaulting ambition to lead or govern us.
“We cannot afford to let the polity overheat. Peace is the only recipe to healthy and positive development. No society can thrive in chaos and discord,’’ he said.
The chairman called on the youth in the state to wake up to reality, adding that “it is their future which KCCI and every well-meaning person in Kano State is trying to nurture and secure.
Tofa also urged the media to do all they could to promote political correctness.
“Privatisation and commercialisation should never be an excuse for allowing fake news, hate speech and political free-for all on the airwaves.
“It is the responsibility of the media to do all in their power to blunt political foul language; uncouth and unguarded utterances in the name of campaigns or promotion of candidates or a political direction,’’ he said.
The chairman said that the KCCI is an NGO, formed two years ago to galvanise the different strata of the society as part of an honest quest to bring about tangible and positive changes in the socio-economic and political affairs of the state. (NAN)
