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| Hon Beni Lar |
Lar
says plans to truncate peaceful elections in Langtang on Saturday uncovered.
By
Udanta Ugante
February
20, 2019
The member
representing Langtang North/Langtang South federal constituency in the House of
Representatives and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the same seat,
Hon Beni Lar has raised alarm over alleged importation of thugs into her
constituency to truncate the re-scheduled presidential and national assembly elections
for Saturday.
Lar disclosed this to newsmen during a press
briefing in Jos this afternoon when she said, “In Langtang North and Langtang
South, the people are friendly. By nature, we are a peaceful community. However,
we have credible information to show that thugs have been imported into
Langtang North and South to disrupt, vandalize and destroy all units outside of
the cosmopolitan areas to ensure that Langtang North and Langtang South which
is a PDP stronghold in Plateau State is destabilized. Unfortunately, some
individuals who are heading Langtang North and Langtang South are fully aware
of this plan”.
Recall that the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) postponed the said election scheduled for last
Saturday and gave logistic challenge as reason for the postponement.
However,
the law maker said the postponement was an act of providence as its conduct
might have resulted in the loss of lives. According to her, “Had the election
conducted last Saturday, we would have been shocked that gun shots would have
been fired in many polling units.
"Ballot boxes would have been snatched, card
readers would have been snatched, INEC staff would have been intimidated and
voters would have been scared away. This is to let the world know that had the
elections held on Saturday, there would have been chaos, contusion and we wouldn’t
know how many lives could have been loss in the process”.
The daughter to the first civilian Governor
of Plateau state and the first national Chairman of the PDP further stressed
that the press briefing became imperative in other to alert the public in
general and security agencies in particular to ensure that they are fully on
ground on Saturday to ensure that peaceful elections are held in the
constituency. “We do not want a single life lost and we equally don’t want a
single voter intimidated. I am speaking not just as a candidate of PDP but for
all residents of Langtang North and Langtang South. We would not allow anybody
to come into our territory and intimidate us and stop us from casting our votes
which is our basic fundamental human right”. She said.
Consequently, Hon Lar reminded the government
of the day of its constitutional responsibility to secure every Nigerian.
“I therefore, call on security agencies to
keep to their constitutional obligations. This call becomes very necessary
because we are also told that they are being intimidated by the government not
to show their presence in Langtang North and Langtang South so that illegal
acts could be carried out and the election frustrated either for a different
result to be announced or compromised. They are also said to be considering
inconclusive elections as an option but there will be no reason for
inconclusive election”.
She advised that nobody should be allowed to
be used as agent to destabilize election process adding that whoever emerges as
the winner of the election should be announced freely and fairly.
Other people who also spoke during the
briefing were Hon Simon Domle, the Southern Zone Chairman of the PDP, Barr
Kefas Peter Dandam, the PDP Senatorial flag-bearer in southern zone and Hon
Ponmak Rindap, a member of the state PDP Campaign Council.
Hon Domle was emphatic when he confirmed
seeing the thugs in a hide out and intimated the security agents but before
they arrived at the scene, the thugs were whisked away in two Hilux vans toward
Sabon Gida area.
Barr Dandam also reiterated the need for
peaceful, free, fair and credible elections to compliment the peaceful nature
of the people of Langtang North and Langtang South.” We want to tell the
government and the International Community in strong terms that democracy
should be allowed to play. There should be free and fair elections.
"All we want
is transparency in the system. But in a situation where the security seems to be
shielding some people and exposing others doesn’t speak well. We are appealing
to you (the media) to speak to Government that we don’t want anybody to cause
violent in our land because we are peaceful people” he said.
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