Press zooms in on presidential, National Assembly elections in Nigeria, others

APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The report that 87,209,007 Nigerians out of 93.4 million registered citizens will march to the polls to elect the next president and National Assembly members on Saturday dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Friday.
The Guardian reports that barely 24 hours to Decision Day when Nigerians will march to the polls to elect the next president and National Assembly members, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), yesterday, said a total of 87,209,007 Nigerians out of 93.4 million registered citizens are eligible to vote, being the number of collected Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).
This represents about 93.3 per cent of the total registered voters in the country with about 6.2 million registered voters failing to collect their PVCs.
INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who presented the figures at the daily briefing held at the national collation centre in Abuja, said about 13.6 million new PVCs were printed for those who registered newly or applied to transfer their PVCs or requested replacement.
Leading the pack for the number of PVCs collected is Lagos State with 6,214,970. Kano is second with 5,594,193; Kaduna came third with 4,164,473; followed by Katsina having 3,459,945; and Rivers coming fifth with 3,285,785 PVCs collected as at February 5, 2023. Ekiti recorded the least PVCs collected with 958,052.
States with the highest number of uncollected PVCs include Lagos – 845,225, Oyo – 515,254, and Ogun – 410,281. Bauchi with total registered voters of 2,749,268 has the highest PVC collected rate at 99 per cent, translating to 2,721,780 PVCs collected. Yakubu assured Nigerians that the Commission was adequately prepared for the election.
“We remain fully committed to a free, fair and credible process. I want to once again declare that our allegiance is only to Nigeria. Our commitment is to ensure that in this election, we put everything in place for free choice, fair contest and credible outcome,” he stated.
The newspaper says that the Federal Government last night ordered the closure of Nigeria’s borders for the conduct of the elections. This was made known in a communiqué from the office of the Comptroller General (CG) of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Isah Idris.
Idris stated that Nigeria’s land borders will be closed effective 00:00 hours (midnight) on Saturday to 00:00 (midnight) hours on Sunday. Nigeria’s foremost agency in charge of border management, has accordingly instructed all command comptrollers, especially those in the border states to ensure strict enforcement of the order.
President Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday, arrived in Daura, his hometown of Katsina State ahead of Saturday’s elections. This would be the first election since 2003 where he won’t be on the ballot.
The presidential jet touched ground at the Umaru Musa Yar’adua Airport at exactly 4:41p.m., 10 minutes after which the jet was opened for the President and his entourage to come down and proceed to Daura on a white helicopter.
United States President, Joe Biden, has urged presidential candidates to abide by the peace accord signed on Wednesday to accept the results of Saturday’s election.
Biden, in a statement yesterday, commended the peace accord. “By signing this pledge, the parties and candidates have committed to accept the results of the election, as announced by INEC and to support a peaceful transition of power,” he said. He added that elections are a fundamental part of a functioning democracy, and all Nigerians deserve the chance to freely and fairly choose their future.
Biden said: “While the United States does not support any single candidate or party, we strongly support a peaceful and transparent process that reflects the will of the people of Nigeria. On election day, I encourage all Nigerians — no matter their religion, region, or ethnicity —to exercise this fundamental freedom and make their voices heard — including young voters, many of whom may be heading to the ballot box for the first time.
The Punch reports that the military, police and the Department of State Services have begun massive raids on the hideouts of hoodlums as a pre-emptive measure to curb violence during Saturday’s general election.
As part of the crackdown, no fewer than 63 suspected thugs were arrested in Kano on Thursday after hoodlums attacked the New Nigeria Peoples Party supporters.
It was learnt that at least four persons were killed while 10 vehicles were destroyed during the attack which occurred at noon along Naibawa-Zaria Road.
It was learnt that the NNPP supporters were on their way to Kwanar Dangora on the outskirts of the city to receive the party’s presidential candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso when the incident happened.
Kwankwaso was on his way to Kano for the grand finale of his presidential campaign rally.
Our correspondent gathered that the NNPP, the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressive Congress had mobilised their members to drum up support for their presidential and national assembly candidates but their plans were scuttled by the violence.
The Public Relations Officer of the state Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Ibrahim Abdullahi confirmed the arrest of 63 suspects to The PUNCH.
The newspaper says that power distribution companies have stepped up the quantum of electricity load allocation that they receive and distribute to consumers across the country, as the latest data from the Federal Government showed a reduction in the amount of unutilised energy by the Discos.
Data released on Thursday by the Federal Government-owned Transmission Company of Nigeria on Daily Discos Load Summary from February 4 to 10, 2023, showed that the cumulatively excess load allocation that was taken and distributed by the Discos during the period was 897MW.
The report, however, indicated that the total quantum of energy that was not utilised during the same period was 407.53MW.
Nigeria’s daily power generation has been hovering between 4,500MW and 5,000MW for some weeks now. As of 6am on Thursday, for instance, it was 4,753.9MW.
Power distributors get around this quantum of electricity from TCN for distribution to customers daily. Some of the Discos accept higher than their maximum load nomination (excess load), while others take less than what they nominate for, depending on various factors.
The 11 Discos captured by the Transmission Company of Nigeria in its latest daily load summary include Abuja, Benin, Eko, Enugu, Ibadan, Ikeja, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Port Harcourt and Yola.
An analysis of data for the 11 Discos indicated that on February 4, seven of the power firms took a cumulative excess load allocation of 97.96MW, while four others could not utilise a total of 63.68MW.
On February 5, six power firms took a total excess load allocation of 91.62MW, while the remaining five failed to utilise 110.73MW.
The next day, being February 6, seven Discos distributed an excess load allocation of 83.92MW, as four others did not take 59.14MW.
TCN said six power distributors accepted a cumulative excess load allocation of 72.95MW on February 7, but noted that a total of 70.49MW was not utilised by five other Discos on the same day.
GIK/APA