“There is no reason to say that if [Nigerians] are not in their homes they cannot vote,” Zanna says, because the original agreement from the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) is that the IDP centers would be the election stations for Nigerians, even for voters “living in town or with relatives.”
Senator Ahmed Zanna of Borno Central sat with SaharaTV on Saturday, Jan. 17 to discuss the recent Baga massacre by Boko Haram and the political campaigns in Borno State. Senator Zanna challenged government reports claiming that 150 people died in the recent Borno State violence.
“The numbers of buildings lost are almost equal to the number of dead claimed,” Zanna said, adding that he believes that the Amnesty International report of 2,000 deaths in Baga “[is] not exaggerated.” Accounts have emerged of Boko Haram chasing residents from their homes into the bush, even running down some residents with vehicles, Senator Zanna says.
The senator also notably downplayed President Jonathan’s visit to Borno saying, “It was not a visit to Borno, it was a visit to the military,” and claimed further that the president showed little remorse for those lives lost in the Baga massacre.
Responding to the concern that insecurity in Borno State would prevent the presidential and gubernatorial elections from taking place, Senator Zanna stated that without the northeast states under emergency administration (Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe) that there would be no credible election.
“There is no reason to say that if [Nigerians] are not in their homes they cannot vote,” Zanna says, because the original agreement from the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) is that the IDP centers would be the election stations for Nigerians, even for voters “living in town or with relatives.”
Senator Zanna, seeking re-election this year, recently defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and said that President Jonathan’s campaign has “nothing to tell Nigerians” adding that “most people do not even listen to the president.”
Regarding his defection, Senator Zanna says that he left the PDP because Ali Modu Sheriff, the former governor of Borno, was interested in his seat and that the government “seems to have sympathy toward him.”
As the election fast approaches, Zanna concedes that some political defections to the APC in the north are because people are scared to campaign with Jonathan.