Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State has affirmed that the Local Government Area (LGA) elections slated for Saturday will proceed as scheduled, despite legal hurdles.
His statement follows a ruling by Justice Simon Amobeda of the Federal High Court in Kano, which barred the conduct of the polls and dismissed the leadership of the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC).
Speaking to a large crowd at the Sani Abacha Stadium on Thursday, during the presentation of flags to New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) candidates, Yusuf maintained that KANSIEC had fulfilled all legal requirements for the elections to take place.
He argued that most states in Nigeria have successfully held their local government elections, emphasizing that Kano must not be left behind. The governor also accused unnamed “enemies of the state” of attempting to derail the democratic process.
“We have satisfied all the conditions laid down by the law and we have completed all necessary preparations for the conduct of the elections on Saturday, as such, the polls must take place as planned.
“We are aware of plans by enemies of the state to truncate this election, but by the grace of Allah, they will not succeed; the elections will be conducted peacefully and credibly.
“Almost all states of the federation had successfully conducted their elections except us because some enemies are hell bent of scuttling the process.
“So let me borrow from the late Rimi’s words ‘uban kuturu ya yi kaɗan’. We must conduct this election on Saturday as planned. I called on our supporters to come out en mass to vote for candidates of our great party NNPP,” Mr Yusuf said.
However, the state’s Police Commands, through its spokesman, Abdullahi Kiyawa, had declared that it would not join the election exercise as security agents.
In a video clip, Mr Kiyawa, a Superintendent of Police, told Aminiya that according to the law, the police would not provide security for the election but would be ready to contain any break of law and order in the state.
He explained that the Command had taken the decision in compliance with the court order in the judgement passed by Mr Amobeda of the federal high court in Kano on Tuesday.
