By Charles Kumolu & Gbenga Oke

NIGER State Governor, Dr. Babangida Aliyu has dismissed calls that election should not hold in the North East geopolitical zone currently being ravaged by Boko Haram insurgency, describing the affected areas as the strongholds of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

He also called for a formal declaration of war on Boko Haram insurgents, noting that failure to do so would make the ongoing war on terror appear cosmetic.

Aliyu in an interview on Channels Television, yesterday, called on the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, to shun calls for election not to be held in the zone.

His words: ‘’If there is no election in any part of the country, there should not be election entirely. These are areas where the PDP polled more votes in the past. The President has said that there will be elections there. The INEC chairman has also said so. Therefore election should hold there. I don’t think our constitution has provided that there should not be election there. If people are saying there should not be election there, they should should come up with a solution that will satisfy us.’’

On the state of emergency in troubled areas, he said: ‘’The extreme expectation of the people was that democratic structures would be dismantled in areas affected by the state of emergency. That should not be so. We have not been able to define the purpose of emergency, if not this is the only time to declare a formal war on the so called Boko Haram.