Nothing must stop Anambra governorship election, Buhari tells Service chiefs

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the Service Chiefs to ensure that the upcoming Anambra State Gubernatorial election is a peaceful one.

The President said the order was necessary because his administration would not sit back and allow non-state actors to set the wrong precedence in the history of the nation’s electoral experience.

National Security Adviser (NSA) Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno conveyed the Commander-in-Chiefs directive while briefing reporters on the outcome of yesterday’s National Security Council meeting at Presidential Villa, Abuja.

According to the NSA, the President made it clear to heads of security agencies that his government must do everything necessary to give Anambra people their constitutional right to vote, despite threats by non-state actors to disrupt the election.

To instill order in the state and allow a peaceful election, Gen. Monguno said security and intelligence agencies had been mandated to enforce peace.

He said: “Today’s (yesterday) meeting of the National Security Council focused its attention on several issues, primarily the elections in Anambra State, which will be held on the 6th of November. Council observed recent trends in which a lot of violent activities have been taking place and Council is desirous of seeing a hitch-free election being conducted by next month.

“Now the problem here is that in as much as the government wants to conduct peaceful elections, there are non-state actors who have been heating up the polity, who have made all kinds of attempts to stymie orderly elections for next month.

“The President has directed that under no circumstances will anything be allowed to stop the elections from taking place successfully, the people have a right to vote, they have a right to select their leader, and no group or individual will be allowed to stimulate anarchy and chaos, leading to murderous activities.

“The President has made it very clear that the armed forces, security agencies, and law enforcement agencies must make sure that the elections take place, if it means overwhelming the entire environment with the presence of security agencies.