SHEKARAU RAISES FEARS OVER SAFETY OF BALLOT PAPERS

Ahead of the rescheduled National Assembly elections, presidential candidate of the All Nigerian Peoples Party, (ANPP), Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau has raised fears about the security of the ballot papers to be used in the election.

Shekarau, who was speaking at a colloquium in Lagos yesterday, organised by the Congress of Political Leaders, CPL, said before the aborted National assembly election last Saturday, the ballot papers were in the strong room of the Central Bank and other banks for safe keeping. He noted that following the cancellation of the poll, the voting materials are now in the custody of the polling clerks.

Shekarau said because of the poverty in the country, nobody could guarantee that these polling clerks would not sell out to desperate politicians who may want to lay their hands on the ballot papers. He said because voting had started in some places before the cancellation, it became difficult to locate the number of ballot papers that were used during the botched National Assembly polls.

'Before now, the ballot papers were in the vaults of the CBN and other banks. But you released it to people, with the hope that it would be used throughout the day, but now that you stopped it, they are in the hands of the same people who are sleeping with them under their pillows, and you still insist that they are safe. How do you know for sure they would not be manipulated'.

Speaking on the state of the nation, the Kano State governor noted that at independence in 1960, Nigeria was the 20th largest economy in the world. However, he said it is regrettable that 50 years after, Nigeria is now among the least developed economies in the world despite the abundant human and material resources in the country.

He said the country is poor today because of bad governance. The ANPP candidate said the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has failed to give the nation good governance. According to him, in the 12 years of the PDP administration, none of the many problems plaguing the country has been addressed.

The ANPP presidential candidate said overtime, we blame the military Shaky for the woes of the country, but in the 'last twelve years we have been ruled by one party that claims to be the biggest in Africa, never mind the change of individuals, they are all the same, yet we have not seen any change.'