President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday met behind closed doors with governors of the North-East states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
The meeting, which was aimed at finding a lasting solution to the insurgency in that part of the country, was also attended by security chiefs and relevant ministers.
The meeting came on the backdrop of fears that the general elections may not hold next month in the three states, which have been considered as strongholds of the Boko Haram sect
However, all those who attended the meeting and spoke with State House correspondents afterwards, expressed the hope that elections would hold in the troubled parts of the country next month despite the activities of insurgents there.
They, however, stressed the need for the deployment of more troops to the troubled areas ahead of the elections.
Yobe State Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Geidam, spoke with State House correspondents.
The governor said, “We have come to brief the President on the security features of our various states, we have come to greet him and we told him of the challenges we have been facing.
“We are appealing to the Federal Government to deploy more troops in addition to what we have on ground to arrest the situation in our various states.
“We need more troops, the troops that we have on ground in our various states are not enough to contain the situation, so we have appealed to the Federal Government to deploy additional troops with full equipment to tame the situation.
“Elections will hold in the states. Election will hold, that is the position of the electoral commission and definitely in all those areas where insurgency exists, elections will hold”.
Speaking in the same vein, the Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, said elections must hold in the affected states to send a strong signal to the insurgents.
He said by not holding elections in the states, the government would be seen to have given in to the antics of the sect.
He also argued that elections could be conducted in Internally Displaced Person’s camps.
