Elections will hold in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States despite ongoing insurgency by Boko Haram in the three states, governors and military chiefs said Tuesday after a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan.
The meeting reviewed the security situation in the three states and the entire region ravaged by a bloody rebellion by the jihadist group.
The group has killed and abducted thousands of Nigerians over five years, and has seized several towns in the last months, raising concerns whether the 2015 election will hold in those areas.
Governor Ibrahim Geidam, who spoke to reporters after the meeting, said the governors and the service chiefs agreed that elections should hold in the affected areas.
He said the governors requested the president to deploy more troops in the three states for the elections.
“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,” he said. “We need more troops, the troops that we have on ground in our various states are not enough to contain the situation.”
He said the governors agreed that the elections will send a strong message to the militants.
The governor argued that elections could be conducted in camps sheltering Internally Displaced Person.
“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,” he said.
