Politics
SUPPLEMENTARY POLL: Benue youths issue ‘body bags’ threat
Benue Youth Forum has cried out over alleged presure on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to make sure Governor Samuel Ortom loses the supplementary election in the state by all means.
The forum’s president, Comrade Terrence Kuanum, stated this in Makurdi, the state capital, alleging that the plot was to ensure that the coming Benue State governorship rerun election is subverted in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
While he warned that any external interference to skew the process would be resisted by Benue youths, Kuanum advised those plotting to compel the Benue state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) to announce APC as winner of the poll against the wishes of majority of the people of the state to also make available body bags to evacuate Benue youths who are prepared to die for a course they believe in.
“The plan is for INEC to announce the APC candidate winner of the election while PDP heads to the tribunal to seek Justice which will not be served.
“The APC and its co-travelers are pressuring INEC to destroy Benue state for their own greed even when it is obvious that the rerun in Benue is nothing but an academic exercise because Governor Samuel Ortom has a lead margin of over 80,000 votes.
“Moreover, we also have it on record that in the 179 Polling Units where elections were cancelled which are known PDP strongholds, with registered voters strength of 121,019, not more than 70,000 of the electorates have Permanent Voters’s Cards, PVCs, even at that, there is no way voter turnout in these places can hit 40 per cent.
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“Benue youths have said and we will reiterate that nobody would impose a Governor on us, we will freely choose our Governor and he is the one who has continued to stand in defense of the people and that is why we came out en masse a week ago to vote him to show gratitude and we will do it again on March 23,” he said.
Meanwhile, INEC Head of Voter Education and Publicity in Benue State, Mr. Emma Okpe has denied any such pressure to make the electoral body announce anybody winner of the March 23 rerun against the verdict of the people through the ballot.
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