Yobe State Electoral Commission sets for February 27th LG elections

Yobe State Electoral Commission says it has set 27 February for local government council election.

The council polls will be conducted for chairmen and councilors according to the Commission.

The state chairman of independent electoral commission Dr. Mamman Mohammed in a statement in Yobe on Wednesday said “the declaration for the election was intended on 27 March 2020 but was interrupted by the covid-19 insurgency in which we made declaration on 5 December 2020 as the date of the election had to postponed for the same reason while declaration date  was retained as 4 September, 2020 so that all interested political parties willing to participate in the election will have enough time to get prepared. And between 4 September 2020 and 27 Feb 2021 we had sixteen political parties willing to participate. By our program all political parties willing to participate in the coming local government election are free to conduct primary elections before January 27 2021”.

The parties were given till 29 January 2021 to collect nomination forms from  the commission’s office on 29 January 2021.

He said six political parties collected the forms and  their names were displayed for public consumption.

On the part of the commission it has been able to print out an updated voter register which contains one million, three hundred and sixty five voters being arranged according to the 17 local government and 178 wards with 1714 polling units.

The commission also printed out that ballot papers at 1.35 million each for chairmen and their councilors separately.

According to Dr. Mohammed “we have 14 Hilux four wheel drive Toyota vehicle to convey electoral equipment to local government headquarters across the state and the vehicles are made road worthy and fully functional. They will set out on Thursday to respective local government destination in which each unit needs two officials and two security personnel which the commission aready offered appointment to all the required number of staff through the electoral officers of the local government.

Dr. Mamman also made it known that the association of all the executive chairmen of the state independent electoral commission of Nigeria (FOSIECON), 36 members are invited to come as observers including 53 other organizations that applied to participate as observers.

The executive chairman of the commission promised that the election will be conducted under covid-19 protocol.

Army recovers bodies of soldiers killed in Orlu, dismisses fake video on impending attack on market

The Nigerian Army has recovered the corpses of four soldiers allegedly killed by IPOB militias in Orlu, Imo State.

A senior military officer who confirmed the development to PRNigeria said the military vehicle that was damaged during the attack had also been recovered.

PRNigeria had earlier reported Nigerian troops on Monday nabbed 20 members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) after they attacked soldiers and civilians in Orlu.

The Nigerian troops in a joint operation involving the Army, Air Force and the Police sustained raid operation in the axis, after the killing of four soldiers on escort duties in the area by IPOB elements.

The IPOB militia had ambushed and killed the soldiers who were on the escort of the Director Civil Affairs, Brigadier General HE Nzan, and his team on inspection of the Civil-Military Project at Nkwerre. They also took away weapons and a vehicle belonging to the troops.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Army 82 Division, Colonel Aliyu Yusuf, has alerted the public of a fake video on an alleged plan by soldiers to attack women and children in Orlu Market.

Colonel Yusuf said the fake video is being circulated on the social media to hoodwink the public.

He said: “The video was recorded in an unknown market with a fake soldier claiming to be privy to a supposed order given by 302 Artillery Regiment, Onitsha to start killing everybody at Orlu Market and environs in Orlu L.G.A in Imo State.

“Preliminary investigation revealed that it was a calculated attempt to maliciously fabricate sensational stories to cause resentment and smear campaign against Nigerian Army Internal Security Operations.

“The supposed individual in the video was not bold enough to reveal his true identity as claimed or present his so called military uniform and identity card which were deliberately obscured to deceive innocent target audience.”

Yusuf added that the Nigerian Army recognises the right of citizens to hold and share opinions on social media and not to spread divisive contents by unpatriotic individuals.

(PRNigeria)