Polls: Boni Haruna Pleads With INEC, Kicks Against Voting Outside Michika

SAN FRANCISCO, March 22, (THEWILL)  – Minister of Youths Development, Mr. Boni Haruna, has pleaded with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to have a change of heart over its decision to conduct the forthcoming general elections for Michika in Yola, the state capital.

Michika, a town in Adamawa State, and the headquarters of Michika local government area, is one of the recently-liberated communities in the state which the Nigerian troops reclaimed from the Boko Haram insurgents.

Haruna, while speaking with journalists, weekend, in Michika, lamented that though the area had been liberated from Boko Haram, INEC is still insisting on its initial plans of conducting the general elections outside the area.

He disclosed that his visit, which took him to Hong, Mubi, Madagali, and Michika where he addressed a mammoth crowd of returnees in Kuburshosho, his native village, was to ascertain the true situation of things in the area not only as a former governor of the state but also as one of the major stakeholders of Michika.

He noted that about 70 percent of the people affected by the insurgency had returned back to their homes, stressing that following this development, if INEC still goes ahead with conducting Michika's election in Yola, as earlier planned many electorate will be disfranchised.