Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has warned that the 2023 general election will not hold if insecurity is allowed to continue.
Speaking in an interview with Channels Television on Tuesday, Akeredolu urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sit up and avoid further degeneration of Nigeria’s insecurity.
The Ondo State governor suggested that the president has been sleeping and needs to wake up to his responsibilities.
Recall that Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State had also stated that insecurity is a big threat to the conduct of the 2023 general elections in Nigeria.
He noted that if the current security challenges persist or escalate, the 2023 election in the country may not hold.
The Benue made the submission on Tuesday while addressing newsmen at the end of the meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari to brief him on his attack by suspected herdsmen.
Akeredolu told Channels TV that: “I think he (Ortom) is right. Definitely, we cannot conduct elections in an insecure environment. If insecurity is not nipped in the bud, it will escalate, and if it escalates, all of us should be worried that as at the time we are getting to 2023, we might have full-scale banditry and other insecurity in the country.”
The Ondo governor noted further, “With that, there is nobody that can carry out any election under that atmosphere.”
“What is clear is that he (Mr Ortom) has made a good point that the federal government must sit up.
“Something just has to be done now to ensure that this issue of insecurity that is escalating by the day is now nipped in the bud and deescalated as soon as possible,” Akeredolu added.
He explained, “There must be a swift response to all this level of insecurity. For now, since there is nothing else to do, those of us who believe that there should be multi-level policing and the time has come for us to have state police, it is not something you can force down.
“It is something that will have to go through the National Assembly. It takes some time, but that is the goal. But before then, I believe that we can have meetings, set up committees on insecurity. Let it be addressed wholesomely without any bias.”
