Abuja - Facing an increasingly violent Islamist
insurgency, governors from three states in northeast
Nigeria asked President Goodluck Jonathan on
Tuesday to deploy extra troops to secure their
regions before next month's presidential election.
With less than six weeks to go before the polls,
officials are concerned the northeast may be so
destabilised by Boko Haram militants that millions of
people are prevented from voting in Borno, Yobe
and Adamawa, the worst affected of Nigeria's 36
states.
"We need more troops. The troops on the ground
we have in our various states are not enough," Yobe
state governor Ibrahim Gaidem told journalists at
the presidential villa after meeting with Jonathan.
"We appealed to the president to deploy additional
troops with full equipment to tame the situation."
The presidency was not immediately available to
comment, but a presidential source told Reuters
Jonathan had accepted the request in principle. The
source did not give further details.
Also read: Insurgency, fraud pose risks for credible
election
Security will be a major election issue in the country
with the biggest economy and population in Africa.
The electoral commission says more than a million
Nigerians displaced by the Islamist insurgency in the
northeast may not be able to vote on Feb. 14 unless
the law is changed to enable them to do so away
from their home regions.
Parliament is considering such a law. Jonathan's
main opponent is Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim
from the north who, as a former military leader, is
seen as tough on security.
The five-year-old insurgency, which is trying to
revive a medieval Islamic caliphate, has killed
thousands of people and uprooted more than a
million. The militants have also kidnapped hundreds
of children: 200 girls snatched from a school in the
village of Chibok last April remain missing.
The military seems ill-equipped and overstretched
against a determined foe. Boko Haram killed dozens
of civilians and at least 11 soldiers when it took
control of a Nigerian town and army base on the
shores of Lake Chad, at the borders with Chad and
Cameroon, at the weekend.
Refugees aside, it may be too insecure in some parts
of the northeast to hold an election at all, officials
say, and many foreign observers will not get security
clearance to go up there.
But the governors of the three states under a
military state of emergency were confident the polls
would happen everywhere.
"Definitely in all those areas where the insurgency
exist, elections will hold," Gaidem said.
- Reuters



http://m.news24.com/nigeria/National/News/Governors-facing-Boko-Haram-request-more-troops-before-election-20150106

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presidency may not listen because it is part of their plans to destabilise northern electorates

Zakkyoz:
presidency may not listen because it is part of their plans to destabilise northern electorates

Very true.
Jonathan might never send troops there considering the fact that Buhari has more Electorates in the North East.

the bh menance has seriously weigh down our military bc of divided interest in virtually every face of our national life.

God help divide this country in 2015, so that dog & baboon can kill each other, nothern nigeria has destroy this country with their invitation of their fellow jihadists all over the world to destroy Christianity.