Nigeria: Muhammadu Buhari orders security forces to be ‘ruthless’ ahead of election

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari orders security forces should be 'ruthless' ahead of the country's postponed election and that anyone who tries to disturb the vote 'will do so at the expense of his own life.'

President Muhammadu Buhari recently said as both Nigeria's ruling party and top opposition party condemned the last-minute decision to delay Saturday's vote until February 23. The president's comments brought an outcry from some Nigerians since he signed a pledge last week to contribute to a peaceful election.

But a ruling party chieftain in Rivers state, Eze Chukwuemeka, said the comments didn't endorse "jungle justice, as some people are putting it. As leader, you don't sit down and watch while your nation is going down the drain." The electoral commission has allowed election campaigning to resume.

Muhammadu Buhari added anyone trying to steal or destroy ballot boxes and voting material in the election now scheduled to take place this coming Saturday would be dealt with firmly. "I have given the military and the police instructions to be ruthless. We are not going to be blamed for the bad conduct of the election," he told an emergency meeting of senior members of his All Progressives Congress (APC) party in the capital Abuja.

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