The Armed Forces has assured Nigerians that it would support peaceful general elections and urged voters to go out and exercise their franchise without fear.

The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin, gave the assurance on Thursday after he met with the service chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police, behind doors.

The Directors-General, Department of State Services (DSS), National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and Chief of Intelligence Agency (CIA) attended the closed door meeting.

Olonisakin, who addressed the press after the meeting, disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari, had met with the service chiefs and made it clear that he was committed to free, fair and credible elections.

He said: “I wish to say that the Armed Forces of Nigeria are also committed to violence-free elections and that all Nigerians are able to carry out their civic responsibilities and vote for candidates of their choice without fear of molestation by any person or groups”.

The CDS, however, said that the military was aware of plans to illegally use uniforms of military and paramilitary agencies to impersonate security personnel.

He also said that they were aware of plans to use illegally acquired arms to intimidate and harass members of the public and other like acts to breach security.

Olonisakin, however, warned that the military and other security agencies would not tolerate any act likely to cause security breaches, before, during and after the exercise.

He further warned that all such acts would be decisively dealt with.

He urged Nigerians to disregard the “stay at home’’ advice on the day of election in some parts of the country.

According to him, the stay home leaflets being circulated and similar online messages are part of the handiwork of mischief makers, who are bent on scuttling the process and should be ignored.

“I want to assure the public that the security agencies are prepared to support the police, to ensure safe conduct of the elections.’’

He maintained that law enforcement agencies would remain apolitical, adding that a code of conduct for the armed forces had been issued to personnel deployed for the elections.

He said that personnel not deployed for election duty had been directed to “steer clear of the exercise, apart from exercising their rights to vote for candidates of their choice.’’

The CDS also warned that violators of restriction of movement on the day of election, no matter how highly placed will be arrested and detained, except those on essential duty and election observers.

NAN recalls that the Acting Director Defence Information, Brig-Gen. John Agim, had at a news conference told personnel, who want to exercise their franchise to do so in mufti. (NAN)