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The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that for the 2015 general elections to be considered free and fair, the military should be kept away from voting centres.
The call was made yesterday by the leader of APC in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area and Chief of Staff, Rivers State Government House, Chief Tony Okocha, shortly after the inauguration of the Elders’ Advisory Council of the party in the area.
According to him, the military had no reason to be in politics or found around voting centres during elections. He added that the primary responsibility of soldiers was to protect the territorial integrity of the nation and not to be drafted to election centres.
The chief of staff stressed that the presence of soldiers at voting centres would create fear in the minds of the electorate, causing them to totally abstain from voting.
Okocha said: “The business of the military is not in politics at all. They are to protect the territorial integrity of a country or a sovereign nation and they (military) have no business in a civil arrangement.
“So, anybody will naturally express fears, especially when you see people boasting that the only way they can win elections is by militarizing the entire place so that people will stay away.
“Militarizing election venues is a vice and is not obliged by any standard whatsoever and this should not happen in 2015. I am happy that the National Assembly is even debating on it. The National Assembly holds the powers to assign military to a particular place.
“In 2015, the people’s vote will count because we are in the business of mobilizing people in all the nooks and crannies of the local government areas. APC is deeply rooted in Obio/Akpor local government area because it is all about grassroots in 2015”.
He also expressed confidence in APC’s ability to emerge victorious at the forthcoming council elections in Obio/Akpor, saying that no amount of intimidation or threat could stop their victory.
Okocha, however, appealed to members of the newly inaugurated council in the area to use their position and work for the victory of APC in 2015.
