Governors of the North-East states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe met with President Goodluck Jonathan earlier today, insisting that elections must hold in their states next month.
There have been increased fears that it will be impossible to hold elections in those states due to the activities of Boko Haram.
The governors strongly hold the opinion that elections must hold in their states as in the past in war-torn countries like Syria and Iraq they were able to carry out elections and feel that the insurgency in the North-East should not prevent people from casting their votes on February 14th.
Yobe State Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Geidam, claims the governors have urged the President to deploy more troops to the states in question ahead of the general elections as those currently on ground cannot adequately deal with the security situation in the region.
The governor said, “We have come to brief the President on the security features of our various states, we have come to greet him and we told him of the challenges we have been facing.
“We are appealing to the Federal Government to deploy more troops in addition to what we have on ground to arrest the situation in our various states.
“We need more troops, the troops that we have on ground in our various states are not enough to contain the situation, so we have appealed to the Federal Government to deploy additional troops with full equipment to tame the situation.
“Elections will hold in the states. Election will hold, that is the position of the electoral commission and definitely in all those areas where insurgency exists, elections will hold.”
Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, on his part asserted that elections must hold in the affected states to send a strong signal to the insurgents and show that the government has not given into their antics.