Rivers LG Polls: We are on standby Army
News & Trends •
the nigerian army on friday said soldiers would be on standby to forestall possible violence in saturdays council elections in rivers1 col. aminu iliyasu spokesman of the nigerian army 6 division port harcourt told news agency of nigeria nan that soldiers would be deployed at strategic points several kilometres away from polling centres1 he explained that the army was adopting that position because we are not directly involved in the election and no soldier is going to be deployed for any election duty1 according to iliyasu it is only the police and department of state security that have the constitutional responsibility to provide security in the election1 however we are always on alert whenever there is election. we will only be on standby at the periphery in case our services are needed he said1 iliyasu said that soldiers were banned from going into polling centres and escort polling materials to the centres1 the rivers state independent electoral commission rsiec will conduct the elections in the 23 local government areas of the state. nan1