Don’t allow misuse of military in elections – Aregbesola Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, has called on Nigerians not to allow misuse of the military in the general election. The governor made the charge in his address titled: “A toast to Our Men and Women of Valour,” at the launch of the Armed Forces Remembrance Emblem at the Government House in Osogbo, the state capital. Aregbesola said all hands must be on deck to ensure that the military and other security agents are not used to intimidate civilians during and after the elections as it was in Osun during the August 9, 2014 governorship election. He launched the Armed forces remembrance emblem with the sum of N2.5 million, saying government could have launched the emblem with more than N10 million it donated last year but for the cash crunch facing the state. He urged Nigerians to come out in large number to vote out the current government. He said: “It is a great misnomer and misuse of the military and society’s resources for soldiers to be deployed as instruments for abridging the citizens’ freedom and liberty, and to intimidate and bully them for the sinister purpose of gaining electoral advantage. “This we have witnessed on several occasions in recent times when the government at the centre unleashed combat-ready soldiers on the populace in a purely civil matter of vote casting by law-abiding citizens. “More alarming is the fact that this happened at a time when a part of the country had been taken over by a terrorist group whose dislodgement should have been a matter of high national security priority.”
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 16:31:49 +0000