BY SALISU IBRAHIM, KANO – Ahead of the March 23 supplementary gubernatorial poll, the Kano Concerned Citizens Initiative (KCCI) said elders of the ancient commercial city will not fold their arms and allow any individual’s selfish ambition to plunge in Kano State into turmoil.
Chairman of the Initiative, Alhaji Bashir Tofa, along with eminent members of the group, said all necessary steps would be taken to ensure the State does not burn on account of an individual or group’s political self-seeking desire.
In a statement on recent happenings in the State’s political circle and made available to newsmen in Kano, the elders said everything possible would be done to protect and prevent Kano from degenerating into a crisis because of the re-run elections
Tofa, a one time presidential candidate of the defunct National Republican Convention, (NRC), stated that KCCI is ‘disturbed, anxious, concerned and troubled’ by the seeming discord and agitation manifesting in Kano since the March 9 governorship election results that INEC declared as inconclusive.
He urged political actors and parties’ leaders in the State to desist from making unguarded utterances capable of inflaming passion that could trigger violence and set the State on fire.
According to KCCI, “It is incumbent upon political leaders to strictly obey the rules of engagement and the law by admonishing their members, operatives and followers to be mindful of the full wrath of the law this time around adding that open monitory and other unlawful inducements must never be condoned during the rerun elections.”
The group therefore charged security agencies to be alert from now until the formal declaration of the re-run election results and after, even as it urged them to provide sufficient personnel, detailed and posted to each of the polling units scattered over the 88 registration areas (wards) in the 30 affected local government areas of the state.
“Security operatives must be seen to be upright and above board and completely nonpartisan. They have done well during the previous elections but the rerun exercise may yet prove to be more arduous and daunting.
“It also becomes imperative to take such security measures as would prevent people from neighboring states, who are non-residents of the state from coming in to partake in the March 23 re-run elections to forestall unnecessary tension or violence”, the group said.
The KCCI however wished all the parties in the gubernatorial race well at the forthcoming supplementary elections, urging them to always have the interest of the State and Kano people at heart as they prepare for the March 23 exercise.
