The protest against military’s involvement in elections continued yesterday with a group in Abuja under the aegis of Save Democracy Women (SDW) cautioning against further deployment of soldiers for polls.
On Tuesday, a pro-democracy group known as Impact Future Nigeria (IFN) staged a peaceful protest in Abuja over the militarisation of the 2019 general elections.
After marching on some roads in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), members of the group, who carried placards with different inscriptions, proceeded to the United States Embassy to express their concerns to the international community. Some of the inscriptions on the placards read: “Our democracy is in danger’’ and “Stop using army in our elections.”
The Convener of IFN, Miss May Uneku, said that the protest was part of efforts to ensure that the governorship and houses of assembly polls slated for March 9 are not militarised.
The SDW members, numbering over 100, who protested at the headquarters of the INEC in Maitama, Abuja yesterday, cautioned the commission against postponing the polls.
Also led by Uneku of the Impact Future Nigeria, the women carried placards with different inscriptions to press home their demands. Some of the placards read: ‘Nepotism must stop’, ‘Restore our stolen mandate’, ‘No place for tyranny in modern democracy’, ‘Save our democracy’, ‘Black cloud over Nigeria’, ‘Let our votes count,’ ‘Steal our votes, steal our future’ and ‘INEC secure our husbands.’
Uneku, who insisted that the police remained the lead agency for election security, urged the army to steer clear of polling units, adding that the low voters turnout in some parts of the country in the February 23 election was attributed to high presence of military personnel.
“Unfortunately, these military men helped President Muhammadu Buhari to rig the presidential election for him to come back.
“We condemn in totality the involvement of military in our elections. During the just-concluded polls, people were killed. The elections were a total charade because there are video and pictorial evidence of people screaming for their lives, military men were harassing and shooting people.
Source: Guardian Newspaper.
