The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Taraba state chapter Monday said it has uncovered plans by some selfish politicians to cause trouble and disrupt the Saturday’s Governorship and State Assembly elections in the state.
The CAN chairman, Reverent Innocent Solomon, who made the allegation in Jalingo, some unscrupulous elements have planned to cause mayhem in some designated locations in Jalingo, the state capital, adding that this would lead to a postponement of the election.
Further, he said part of the plan is to ensure that a new date would be fixed to give undue advantage to one of the political parties.
“Should this first plan fail, they will then attack the Independent National Electoral Commission’s office in Jalingo on Monday, March 11, by 5:00pm when collation of the governorship election result will be taking place.
“The plan is to manipulate the result in favour of a particular political party and if INEC officials refuse to cooperate with them, they will destroy the office.
“Information available to us indicates that the evil plan will enjoy the cover of the police in the state who will look the other way in the face of this ugly event.”
The CAN urged security agencies in the state to carefully investigate the plans to disturb public peace in the state ahead of the elections with a view to preventing the looming danger.
It also called on political actors to allow the people of the state to freely choose their leaders and condemned the violent celebration that greeted the outcome of the presidential election in the state where massive destruction of property was done.
He called on law abiding citizens of the state to come out in their numbers and vote leaders of their choices on Saturday.
“We urge you to remain calm and peaceful, but you must be vigilant and report any suspicious elements to law enforcement agencies.
“Taraba belongs to all of us and we must do everything possible to bequeath to our children the Taraba of our dreams.” he noted.
But in a reaction, the Taraba Police Command said the allegations that the police were at the heart of the plan to cause breach of peace in the state was uncalled for.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, ASP David Missal, said police personnel were professionals who are out to ensure peace and orderliness in the society and would not side any political party to cause crisis.
Missal said the police in the state performed credibly well during the presidential and national assembly elections, saying that arrangements were on to ensure free, fair and peaceful governorship election in the state this Saturday.
He called on the public to give the police timely information regarding any planned breach of peace in the state to enable them deal with such security threat before, during and after the elections.
