Politics
COVID-19: ZLP Makes Case For Kano
The National Chairman, Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Chief Dan Nwanyanwu, yesterday in Abuja called for urgent actions to curb the alarming spread of COVID-19 in Kano State.
Nwanyanwu also urged the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 (PTF) to take urgent steps to curb the spread of the virus.
“There is the urgent need for the NCDC and PTF to swing to action to arrest State the glaring failure we are witnessing in Kano.
“Any delay in tackling this malady may result into a very unpleasant, unfortunate but avoidable national disaster,’’ he said in a statement.
The chairman decried that the COVID-19 Containment Committee set up by the state government had more or less collapsed as half of the members had tested positive.
He explained that the development had rendered the state “without leaders’’ in terms of fighting the raging pandemic.
According to him, the health and safety arrangements in the state for those who tested positive, leaves much to be desired.
Nwanyanwu said that the idea of giving paper to those people confirmed to be positive to report themselves to the isolation centre “is ill-advised and unprofessional’’.
He said many of those who tested positive and were given papers to report to isolation centres, had vanished into the society and had continued to spread the virus unhindered.
He noted that lack of enforcement of the directives on border closure announced by the state sovernment over a month ago, had been completely ineffective.
Nwanyanwu suggested that a special taskforce be constituted for Kano by the PTF, to be run and managed by the PTF and NCDC.
According to the chairman, this is imperative due to the population in Kano and the peculiarities of the state; “Kano state needs help and that help is now”.
The chairman said that some youths in the state had turned the deserted streets into football fields and their fans were gathering around the fields in multitudes.
He said the youth were totally oblivious of the dangers they posed to themselves and to the people in the state.
It will be recalled that no fewer than 150 persons died and were buried in Kano over the weekend as undertakers in charge of cemeteries cried out for help saying they were being overwhelmed.
Prof. Amupitan gave the warning on Saturday, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, during the South-South Zonal Readiness Assessment and Interactive Staff Engagement organised ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He said insecurity remained a potential challenge to the electoral process but stressed that the Commission would not allow threats against its personnel to undermine its constitutional responsibilities.
“Insecurity may pose a challenge, but our collective constitutional resolve is far stronger. Let me again send a clear message from Port Harcourt: anyone who attempts to threaten, intimidate, or harm our ad-hoc staff, NYSC members, or permanent personnel will be brought to justice under the full weight of the law,” he said.
The INEC Chairman, who was accompanied by National Commissioners, directors and technical aides, disclosed that the South-South engagement was the fifth in a series of zonal assessments, following similar exercises in the South-West, North-West, South-East and North-East.
He explained that his physical presence across the geopolitical zones reflected the Commission’s field-first approach, emphasising that electoral integrity must be established through effective operations at the grassroots.
According to him, the assessment would cover operational preparedness across the 123 Local Government Areas in the six South-South states.
On election security, Prof. Amupitan said INEC had moved away from reactive security arrangements traditionally activated around election day to a proactive, intelligence-driven framework known as the “ICCES Tentacle”.
He explained that the framework was designed to extend inter-agency security coordination from national and state headquarters to local government areas and Registration Area Centres, including remote communities.
He identified three critical pillars of the framework as mapping and mitigating security threats, protecting electoral personnel and infrastructure, and guaranteeing safe access to polling units.
The INEC boss said the security arrangement would provide comprehensive protection for electoral personnel, technological infrastructure, including Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices and server infrastructure, as well as voters.
He added that the framework was intended to ensure that every polling unit, irrespective of its geographical location or history of security challenges, remained safe and accessible for the exercise of democratic rights.
Prof. Amupitan disclosed that the South-South security architecture comprised approximately 60 major operational formations, headquarters and state commands operating under the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).
The network, he said, brings together military, naval, air, police and other security and intelligence agencies across the six states.
“Together, this integrated multi-agency network represents the operational backbone that guarantees intelligence-led protection across every riverine creek, coastal axis, and land-based polling unit in the Niger Delta,” he stated.
Providing an overview of the region’s electoral significance, the INEC Chairman said the South-South had the fourth-largest voting bloc in the country, with 15,823,550 registered voters, representing 15.30 per cent of the national register.
Rivers State alone, he said, accounts for 3,736,434 registered voters spread across the 23 local government areas.
Alhaji Abubakar made the demand following revelations that some INEC registration officers allegedly abused their access to the voter registration system to introduce irregular records into the database.
In a statement issued by his Director of Strategic Communications, Mr Phrank Shaibu, the former vice-president described the development as a serious breach of the Commission’s internal safeguards and raised concerns about the integrity of the electoral process.
He urged INEC to identify the officials implicated in the alleged misconduct and explain what disciplinary or legal measures had been taken against them.
Alhaji Abubakar also called for an independent forensic audit of the preliminary voters’ register to establish the scale of the alleged manipulation, identify affected records and determine how the questionable entries were introduced into the system.
He further insisted that INEC preserve all relevant voter records, image files, system access logs and electronic audit trails to prevent the destruction or alteration of evidence before an independent examination could be conducted.
The former vice-president also demanded that the Commission disclose the identities of companies contracted to produce sensitive election materials ahead of the 2027 polls, arguing that transparency was essential to building public confidence in the electoral process.
INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Lawrence Bayode, had earlier disclosed during a television interview that some registration officers across the country allegedly used their official login credentials to introduce irregularities into the voters’ database.
Dr Bayode explained that the Commission’s Automated Biometric Identification System helped identify questionable records and establish how some irregularities entered the system.
He, however, clarified that not all suspicious photographs were AI-generated, as some resulted from poor registration procedures.
The development followed public concerns over suspected AI-generated photographs, alleged duplicate entries and other inconsistencies discovered in the preliminary voters’ register published online on October 26, 2026.
INEC has maintained that the published document is a preliminary register and that it is reviewing questionable records ahead of the certification of the final Register of Voters.
The controversy has intensified calls for greater transparency and accountability in the management of the voters’ register as preparations gather momentum for the 2027 general elections.
-
Opinion4 days ago
Ancestorial Worship: My Take (1)
-
News14 hours agoFresh Ebola Scare As NCDC Records Two Cases
-
Niger Delta13 hours ago
PANDEF Seeks 50% Oil Derivation Allocation Increase
-
Rivers11 hours ago
Don Seeks Repositioning Of Tech Education For Dev
-
Education12 hours agoPAMO MEDICAL UNIVERSITY -Nullifies Arrest warrant on VC
-
Education12 hours agoIAUE MOVES TO END GHOST WORKERS SYNDROME AS 400 NEW NON-TEACHING STAFF UNDERGO MANDATORY ETHICS TRAINING
-
News14 hours ago
Customs Partners EFCC, NDLEA, Others To Tackle Money Laundering, Terrorism Financing
-
News4 days agoFG Must Address Nigerians’ Concerns On Reforms -Shettima …Warns Against Misuse of AI, Social Media