INEC should conduct presidential, gov’ship other polls same day – Shari’ah council

The Supreme Council for Shari’ah in Nigeria (SCSN) has asked all well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to hold the presidential, governorship, senatorial, House of Representatives and other elections on the same day in the country.

The council said political violence might stop the second phase of the election, stressing that some desperate politicians were already warming up to cause crisis.

Addressing newsmen in Kaduna, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Shari’a in Nigeria, Nafi’u Baba-Ahmed, flanked by other members of the council, said, “There is a high probability of the second election not holding because of violence from the first election. It is not going to be feasible. The first election is the presidential and National Assembly elections.

“Our fear is that, in light of the precarious security situation in the country and the fact of the admission by security agencies that they are overstretched, it is quite possible, in fact, highly probable that some desperate politicians who might lose the election will trigger political violence to the extent that the subsequent elections may not hold.

“In light of this, we engage all those that matter. We met with some of the key security chiefs, who expressed their understanding of the situation who agreed with us that their manpower is already overstretched. And it is going to be a situation and an uphill task to cope with political violence.

“We, therefore, advise that INEC should be prevailed upon to hold all the elections on the same day. This way we will avoid a situation where some desperate politicians that are about to lose cannot create chaos in the country such that we will be left with elections half held, half on hold.”