Jalingo – The Taraba Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has requested for deployment of additional security personnel to the state ahead of Saturday’s rescheduled Presidential and National Assembly election.
Alhaji Ibrahim El-Sudi, the state APC Chairman disclosed this at a news conference in Jalingo on Thursday.
El-Sudi noted that the call became necessary due the political situation in the state.
He was reacting to allegations by a political pressure group -Taraba
Volunteer Group that the APC has deployed 3,000 fake soldiers in the
state to enable it rig the election.
“Our attention has been drawn to a false alarm by Taraba Volunteer Group
to the effect that there is a deployment of over 3,000 fake soldiers to
the state to disrupt the election.
“Contrary to this, it is the state government that has trained and
deployed its marshals in the name of enforcing anti grazing laws to help
rig the election as political thugs.
“Information available to us revealed that a large number of the
marshals have been deployed across the state to help rig the election,”
he said.
El-Sudi insisted that the party is not aware of the deployment of the
fake soldiers and challenged the group to locate and apprehend them for
the common good of the people.
“It is a pitiable spectacle that a government that has been in power for over three years will degenerate to these primitive and trivial level of appealing to sentiments rather than showcasing its achievements and stewardship.
“Let me make it clear that we are not aware of the presence of any fake soldier in the state,” he said.
El-Sudi therefore appealed to the Federal Government to deploy
additional security agents to the state to prevent break down of law and
order as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led administration is bent
on fomenting trouble so it can rig the election.
Reacting, Mr Bala Dan-Abu, the Senior Special Assistant to Gov. Darius Ishaku on Media and Publicity, however, said the state marshals have nothing to do with politics.
According to him it is very unfair to associate them with anything to do with politics.
“The marshals have one role and that is to help enforce the open grazing prohibition law in the state and nothing else.
“They have nothing to do with election and will not be deployed for political activities.
“It is therefore very unfortunate that anyone will try to muddle their name into a desperate bid to rig the election in the state,” he said.(NAN)