Over 400,000 IDPs in Borno will vote in 2019 general elections

A total of 409,833 internally displaced persons living in camps in Borno State are set to cast their votes in 10 special voting centres in the 2019 general elections.

This was disclosed by the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Ibrahim Mohammed, while speaking in Maiduguri, the state capital, on Wednesday, February 6, 2019.

He told Daily Trust that the IDPs are those in the Voters Register of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who’ll be privileged to vote in eight local government areas in the state.

He disclosed that 45,707 IDPs from Abadam will vote at the Borno College of Legal and Islamic Studies (BOCOLIS) in Maiduguri, while 36,669 from Guzamala will vote at a centre in Monguno.

61,802 IDPs from Marge will be able to vote at Government Girls Secondary School, Monguno, and another 52,395 IDPs from Dikwa will vote at Central Primary School Dikwa, while 64,488 IDPs will vote at Ngala International School and Nigeria Arabic Village, Ngala.

60,678 IDPs from Kukawa will also be able to vote at Teachers Village IDPs Camp, Maiduguri Metropolis, while 44,705 IDPs from Mobbar will vote at Central Primary School Damasak and Zanna Umarti Ajari Primary School.

The remaining 43,389 IDPs from Kala-Balge will vote at Gamboru Primary School.

Most of the IDPs have been displaced from their local communities due to Boko Haram, a terrorist group whose insurgency has displaced over 2 million people in nearly 10 years.

IDPs in Maiduguri, Borno State

With Borno being the group’s dominant area of operation, Boko Haram terrorists have also killed over 27,000 people and forced a six-week postponement of the 2015 general elections.

While addressing the fact that some of the IDPs were displaced from other states, Mohammed disclosed that non-indigenes will only participate in the presidential election.

He said, “Intrastate IDPs are the IDPs who are indigenes of Borno State, and they are resident in Borno State while the elections are conducted; these will participate in all the elections; while the interstate IDPs from, say, Adamawa State, but resident in Borno State while the elections are conducted; these will participate in only the presidential election as they cast their votes in Borno State, but they will not participate in the governorship, because they cannot vote for their respective state governors in a different state.”

2019 general elections

The 2019 general elections will kick off with the Presidential and National Assembly elections on February 16 while Governorship and State Assembly elections will take place on March 2.

A total of 84,004,084 are registered to vote in the elections.