”Bloody Nose Awaits You” – Chief of Defence Staff, Irabor, Promises Election Day Trouble Makers”

By Gideon Njoku

Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, has a chilling message for those who plan to disrupt the Presidential Election on Saturday February 25, 2023.

Nigerians will go to the polls that day to elect a new President who would succeed the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari on May 29, 2023.

But not a few people are worried over the spate of violence and threat to the election, especially, in the South-east.

In the Zone, Simon Ekpa, self- styled disciple of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, detained Leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, has been threatening fire and brimstone, insisting that  election will not hold in the South-east.

Finland-based Ekpa who, now leads a group, allegedly, a break away from IPOB, called Autopilot, aside from issuing a no-election order in the Zone has, also, declared a sit-at-home order in the whole of the South-east beginning from February 22 to February 27, 2023.  This, ostensibly, is to stop the Igbo from coming out to vote.

In the past couple of days, violence has escalated in the Zone, especially, in Anambra and Imo States, with hoodlums wreaking havoc. Police Stations, especially, in Anambra State, and INEC facilities have been torched. A number of Policemen have been killed, and even private homes have also been razed.

In Okigwe, Imo State, in tye wee hours of Wednesday, they went on rampage, setting people’s homes on fire. The homes of a serving Imo State Cabinet member, that of a Professor of Law and a former Cabinet member, and that of a retired Director of DSS were razed. Sadly, at the home of tye retired Director, a woman died in the inferno.

These are aimed  at scaring people from exercising their voting rights.

But General Irabor, speaking to Journalists on Wednesday after a meeting with Service Chiefs, the Inspector General of Police,  the Director General of tye Department of State Services, DSS, represented by the Director of Operations, among others, has promised a “bloody nose” for those who plan to disrupt the Presidential Election on Saturday.

Giving an update on the preparations made by Security Agencies for the election, Irabor said they are very ready for the job at hand. He promised a violence-free exercise but warned those preparing to disrupt it to “have a change of mind because a bloody nose awaits them.”