Amid squabbles between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Sokoto State ahead of the 2023 governorship and House of Assembly elections the police have warned the parties that acts of lawlessness would not be tolerated from them.
Consequently, the police have launched a security operation, code named, Kule Chas, to prevent the breakdown of law and order in the state.
At different fora, the APC and the PDP in the state have accused each other of conniving with security agencies to scuttle the electoral process in the state.
The APC in its first press conference addressed by its chairman, Hon Sadiq Acida, accused the PDP in the state of conniving with security agencies during the presidential and National Assembly elections to deploy armed men to the polling units as well as young men with dangerous weapons to attack voters and voting agents.
He urged the security agencies to investigate incidents of deliberate destruction of ballot boxes, find out who destroyed the boxes, who their sponsors are and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book.
Forty-eight hours later, the APC chairman summoned another press conference where he alleged that, Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, has arrogated powers of security to the PDP and thugs at polling units in the forthcoming gubernatorial and state assembly elections in the state.
Acida reacting to the gathering of PDP stalwarts at a stakeholders meeting, vowed that APC will not tolerate a situation where Governor Tambuwal has allegedly directed PDP thugs to bundle and detain every APC supporter that goes to the polling centre on election day.
Earlier, the PDP during a stakeholder meeting in the state called on its members across the state to ensure their votes are protected against rigging and manipulation henceforth.
The meeting with Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, in attendance, thoroughly reviewed all infractions noticed during the presidential election and vowed to never again allow the use of foul means to usurp power as it was done in the past.
The party leaders berated the action of security agencies especially the police, which they claimed allowed themselves to be used by the campaign director general of the APC in the state, who is also the minister of police affairs, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi.
Tambuwal urged the security agencies to be professional stressing that any further attempt to intimidate the people in the forthcoming elections would be resisted.
He said, “All of you know what happened last Saturday. We were winning overwhelmingly when the APC thugs invaded the polling units at the watch of security agencies. These thugs rendered most of the election in many polling units inconclusive.
“We will henceforth directly and physically confront and resist the election riggers from always having a field day by truncating our nascent democracy.”
The state commissioner of police, Useni Mohammed Gumel, said the launch of “Operation Kule Chas,” was prompted by recent political developments that led to the declaration of the 25th February National Assembly elections in the state inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Gumel warned that “any person or group of persons seen wielding weapons of any sort will be regarded as an enemy of the state and the nation and would be subdued at all cost by the security.
“We will not fold our arms and allow unconventional approach towards the existing security architecture of the state, with politicians employing the services of vigilante groups at polling units.”
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