Land borders shut ahead of Nigeria election as soldiers patrol, residents stock-up – National | 24CA News
Nigerian authorities began transferring delicate voting supplies underneath armed guard to polling items throughout the nation whereas troopers patrolled potential scorching spot states and land borders had been shut forward of Saturday’s nationwide election.
“Internal movements have been restricted to the polling units. There will also be no movement of persons across national borders,” the ministry of inside stated in a press release.
Security businesses earlier introduced restrictions on the motion of autos from 12 a.m. (2300 GMT on Friday) to six p.m. (1700 GMT) on Saturday, calling it a measure to make sure safety.
Widespread insecurity is a serious concern for voters who will elect new lawmakers and a president to succeed Muhammadu Buhari, who shouldn’t be allowed to contest once more after serving eight years.
In the northern Kano state, business capital Lagos and the southeastern Anambra state, which is within the grips of separatist and gang violence, troopers had been on the streets lower than 24 hours earlier than polls open.
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officers in Awka, the capital of Anambra state, had been transferring poll papers, voting machines and petrol turbines to polling stations underneath navy guard.
“What you are seeing being moved today is the sensitive material,” stated Queen-Elizabeth Ugwu, the resident INEC commissioner in Anambra.
Saturday’s election comes towards a chaotic backdrop of armed battle within the northeast, excessive ranges of crime and shortages of money, gasoline and electrical energy.
Uncertain of the result of the election, Nigerians stocked up on meals and necessities. Voting has typically been adopted by violence in Africa’s most populous nation.
INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu stated preparations had been going easily however the company had suspended voting in a senatorial district in Enugu, one other southeastern state the place an opposition Labour Party candidate was killed.
The candidate for Enugu East district and the motive force of a marketing campaign minibus belonging to a different occasion had been killed in coordinated assaults in Enugu State within the southeast.
Yakubu stated voting for that seat would now be held on March 11, when Nigerians elect the nation’s state governors.
“Materials already delivered for the senatorial election will remain in the custody of the central bank in the state until the new date for the election,” Yakubu informed a news convention.
Flanked by the pinnacle of the police, Yakubu stated INEC was on guard towards doable assaults on its digital system. Results from polling stations can be transmitted electronically utilizing new voting machines.
(Reporting by Camillus Eboh and MacDonald Dzirutwe in Lagos, Seun Sanni in Awka and Abraham Achirga in Kano; Writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe and Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Alex Richardson, James Macharia Chege, Tomasz Janowski and Mark Porter)
