President Muhammadu Buhari during an open All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus meeting has warned that ballot box snatchers stand the risk of paying with their lives.
He spoke in Abuja during the opening session of the Caucus meeting at the APC National Secretariat.
According to the President, such an unlawful act may be the last act the person will engage in.
He said that he had given the security agencies instructions to ensure free and fair elections in the country.
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He said:
“I do not expect any body to cause any disturbance. The security agencies have identified hot spots and flash points and should be prepared to move. We have made as much arrangement as possible for them as much as the country can afford.
“Anybody who decide to snatch ballot boxes or lead thugs to disturb the process, may be that will be the last unlawful action you will take.
“We have directed the military and other security agents to be ruthless. We are not going to be blamed that we want to rig elections.
“I want Nigerians to be respected and let them vote whoever they want across the parties. I am not afraid of that. I went round the 36 states and the FCT and I think I have enough support across the country to vote for me.
“So, I want to warn anybody who think he has enough influence in his locality to lead a body of thugs to snatch ballot boxes or disturb the voting system, he will do it at the expense of his own life,” he stated
The President also explained that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had all the time and resources and didn’t have to wait for only six hours to cancel the elections and tell the public it was impossible.
He continued:
“Definitely, the reason why such incompetence manifested has to be explained to the nation. After the elections, we have to know exactly what happened and who is responsible.
“Otherwise, our efforts to make sure that this system is acceptable would have been eroded. The constitution and the law protected INEC. But they must not take us for granted.
“If for example, the National Assembly refused to approve what they wanted, INEC would have had moral reasons why they couldn’t perform. If the time of four years of election was not constitutionally obeyed the government, INEC would have a case.
“But we don’t understand the reason for this inefficiency and we have to go into details after the election to find out who is responsible,” he said.
He thanked the party leadership for their commitment.
“That was why we sat and said we must have committed leaders in all constituencies to be our agents. We also sat down and worked out the least the party should do for our agents so that they will not depend on anybody or say I am going to drink water or I am going to toilet.
“We made all those arrangements and put it before the governors and Chairmen of the parties. Where the APC has no governors, the governorship candidate and state Chairmen were given that assignment.
“I am satisfied that this instruction has been passed down. Right now, we have so much to do and so, we should now go back to our loyal members in all constituencies so that if anything happen, we will know who to blame.
“We have told our constituents to be patient and react in a very matured way by going peacefully and vote and depend on party representatives in the polling unit,” he concluded.
