Internally Displaced Persons, or IDPs, in the Angwan Zawu Temporary Camp in Kaduna State’s Goni Gora, Chikun Local Government Area, have pleaded with INEC to equip them with the personnel and material resources necessary to take part in the upcoming by-elections.
The camp coordinator, Mr Caleb Nayaro, bemoaned the fact that less than a quarter of the roughly 3,000 displaced people living in five different locations of Buruku Kakau, Toll Gate, Sabon Gida, and Buwaya under his supervision were unable to participate in the elections in 2023 because of security concerns.
He talked to reporters on the sidelines of an event where IDPs were being made aware of the regulations and framework for voting in 2022. The event was sponsored by the European Union via the Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) initiative and coordinated by the All-Rights Foundation (TAF) Africa.
He said that Agwan Zawu is similar to the coordination centre where the five IDPs of Buruku, Kakau, Toll Gate, Sabon Gida, and Buwaya meet.
Nayaro stated:
“We thank TAF Foundations for this sensitisation because we have lost out on many elections as most of us were unable to participate in the 2023 round of elections for example.”
The Coordinator said that “the IDPs in Buruku were supposed to have two polling units but due to insecurity, they could not,” and he prayed that the government would take the necessary steps through INEC to allow these groups of Nigerians to vote in future elections.
George Dominic Anwayi, the assistant programme manager for TAF Africa, expressed sadness earlier that all levels of government, including the IDPs, had left vulnerable people out of the picture.
cc: Daily Post Ng
