By Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye
President Muhammadu Buhari has given marching orders to the nation’s security chiefs that nothing must be allowed to temper with the November 6th gubernatorial election in Anambra State.
This is as the National Security Adviser, General Babagana Monguno (retd) disclosed that the new leader of the Islamic State of West African Province, ISWAP, Mallam Bako was killed two days ago by the military.
The Chief of Defense Staff, CDS, Lucky Irabor had last week told State House Correspondents last week that the ISWAP leader, Abu Musab Al-Barnawi, was eliminated by the military.
Monguno, who briefed on the outcome of the meeting of security chiefs, said President Buhari gave the armed forces the marching order in response to the heightened security challenges in Anambra state.
“The President has directed that under no circumstances will anything be allowed to stop the elections from taking place successfully. The people have a right to vote and select their leader.
“No group or individual will be allowed to stimulate anarchy and chaos, leading to murderous activities. The President has made it very clear that the Armed Forces and all law enforcement agencies must make sure that the elections take place even if it means overwhelming the entire environment with the presence of security agencies.
“There are so many implications for elections to be sabotaged by non-state actors; in the first place, we are in a democracy, secondly it is important to note that if these non-state actors should succeed in destroying the potentials for orderly elections, then it is natural that other parts of the country would also want to copy this same situation.”
According to Mongonu, in the last two months, the military has recorded a lot of successes in the fight against insurgency in the North-East zone of the country which put pressure on the ISWAP and the Boko Haram Islamic terrorists.
“The fact again is that the armed forces, the land forces have done an excellent job because in the span of one month we have been able to take out the leadership of the Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) – that is Abu Musab Al-barnawi.
“Two days ago, the man who succeeded him, one Malam Bako, one of the prominent leaders of the Shura Council of the Islamic State of West African Province, was also taken out.
“They are also contending with leadership crisis. You know these things are also accompanied with inherent issues of trust, conflicts, mutual suspicion and other things.
“So, the operations being conducted by the armed forces in the northern parts of the country…
