The people of Birnin-Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State have said that only local arrangements through diplomatic means in form of reaching out to terrorist groups for negotiation diplomatically, could allow the 2023 Elections to hold successfully in the Local Government Area.

In a statement signed by Ishaq Usman Kasai, Chairman, Birnin-Gwari Emirate Progressive Union (BEPU), the people observed that there are eleven (11) political wards in Birnin-aware and ten (10) of these wards are facing security challenges that if measures are not proactively taken will hinder the election processes.

In the statement made available to journalists in Kaduna on Saturday, the people said “it is a known fact that Birnin-Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State is facing security challenge that is affecting many aspects of its development including transportation, farming, education, economy, business among others; where about one hundred (100) communities are sacked and about fifty thousand (50,000) persons rendered internally displaced (IDPs) across various communities.

“As we are approaching 2023 General Elections, our major concern is for our people including the internally displaced persons (IDPs) to be given the opportunity to exercise their franchise at their respective secondary locations by voting their choices in the election without any fear or intimidation.

“At this point, we wish to commend the effort made in this regard by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in relocating some of the Poling Units (PU) from the sacked communities to various points where the respective eligible voters relocated and are residing as IDPs. This will, indeed, go a long way in providing them with an opportunity to exercise their franchise.

“The second issue is on facilitating movements of the Election Officials and materials on the Election Day to various units in the Local Government, especially to areas where security problems are high, such as the Eastern and Western parts of of the Local Government.

“There are eleven (11) political wards in Birnin-aware and ten (10) of these wards are facing security challenges that if measures are not proactively taken will hinder the election processes.

“However, we are aware of the arrangements being made locally to address these challenges, especially by possibly establishing contact with the respective terrorist groups in the most hostile areas in order to allow successful conduct of the 2023 Elections in the area.

“It is noted that this same approach was adopted successfully during the Census Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) that took place recently where, with the permission of the bandits, all the areas were visited by the Census functionaries and demarcated.

“We, therefore, observe that, based on experience, only local arrangements through diplomatic means in form of reaching to these terrorist groups for negotiation diplomatically could allow the 2023 Elections to hold successfully in about ten (10)political Wards with hundreds of Poling Units (PU) in Birnin-Gwari Local Government Area.

“For now, due to security problems, INEC has already cancelled one PU in Gayam Ward of the LG. This cancelled PU is among the 240 PUs recently cancelled by INEC in Nigeria due to high-security threat.

“We are therefore advising the Authorities to engage relevant stakeholders, especially community leaders in all arrangements for the success of carrying out the 2023 general Elections in Birnin-Gwari Local Government Area,” the statement added. (Vanguard)

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