Anambra: Sheathe your sword, ex-presidential aspirant tells IPOB

 

. INEC ready for guber election – Yakubu

.Allow exercise for good governance, PUAN tells group

 

 

Mr Stanley Osifo, a former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant, has called on  South East youth groups, especially the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), to give  peace a chance.

 

Osifo, who vied for  PDP’s presidential ticket in 2019 is now a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress.

 

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Tuesday that situation in the South East called for concern.

 

“My advice to everybody –  politicians, leaders and the general public – is for everyone to sheathe his  sword right now.

 

“The truth is that Nigeria needs peace to enhance  democracy. Whatever will truncate the democratic processes in the country is not welcome.

 

“For  IPOB members, though outlawed, I want to speak to the minds of aggrieved IPOB members and advise them to sheathe their swords and allow peace to reign not for the election alone but after the poll,” Osifo said.

 

He urged Nigerian leaders to look into the issues  of contention for a sustainable peace.

 

“It is something that can be negotiated and done through dialogue and other means. I believe that is the best approach for peace to return,” he said.

 

The former presidential aspirant called on all individuals and groups fuelling violence in the country to allow peace to reign.

 

NAN reports that  the Federal Government has deployed much security personnel especially in Anambra State, to ensure a peaceful governorship election in the state on November 6.

 

Meanwhile ,the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has arrived in Awka, the capital of Anambra State, ahead of the commission stakeholders meeting on the state governorship election.

 

The Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi in a statement issued on Tuesday in Awka said that Yakubu on arrival immediately went into consultation with the Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Mr Echeng E. Echeng.

 

Oyekanmi said that the chairman thereafter met with members of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), Anambra State chapter, to discuss election security.

 

“He is currently meeting with members of the ICCES, Anambra State chapter, to discuss the security situation with regard to the governorship election taking place on Saturday Nov. 6.

 

Yakubu is billed to attend the traditional and final stakeholders’ meeting on Wednesday in Awka, to discuss final aspects of the Anambra State Governorship Election.

He would also on Thursday attend the peace accord ceremony, where all the contesting candidates of the 18 political parties will commit themselves to peace in writing.

 

Yakubu and his entourage comprising national commissioners, members of the technical team, directors and other directing staff, earlier arrived at Enugu Airport en route Awka.

 

Oyekanmi disclosed that one of the conveners of the National Peace Committee, Bishop Hassan Kukah, was on the same flight with Yakubu.

Also, Polling Units Ambassadors of Nigeria (PUAN) have called on the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) not to disenfranchise Anambra indigenes but step down on its sit-at-home order so people could cast their votes.

 

Ambassador General, PUAN, Dabas Suleiman, made the call at the organisation’s Annual Democratic Leadership Event on Tuesday in Abuja.

 

Suleiman said that the call became imperative so people could cast their votes and make things work for them by promoting good governance by all means.

 

“My message to the people of Anambra is that we have to come out and vote for the candidate of our choice, you know why it is important?

 

“Because if you don’t do that, you have submerged the electoral process.

“I understand that IPOB is threatening fire and brimstone in Anambra and wants people not to come out. I will also send a message to IPOB that when you put such a condition to your people, you are making them to be disenfranchised.

“You will not have good leaders, I will prefer that we all come together because we want good governance and the only way you can get good governance is to allow the people to go out there to cast their votes; so I advise the people of Anambra to go and cast their votes.’’

 

Suleiman said that PUAN believed that the narrative of Nigeria’s democratic system needed to be changed and the only way  to do that was to get it right.

 

He added that there was the need to educate the populace at the polling units community so they would know how to vote for the candidates of their choice.

 

This, he said was because one of the major objectives of the organisation was to ensure that the electorates became the ultimate deciders of every democratic elections in the country.

 

He said that PUAN would be deploying 150 trained ambassadors, 100 residents of Anambra, and 50 from the 36 states, including the FCT to monitor the election.

 

Suleiman said that the observers would use their phones to capture the process of the election from start to finish, adding that “PUAN ensures that every election done in every polling unit community would be transmitted electronically.

 

“It is electronically because if we really want to curtail the system of rigging, the system of electoral malpractices, then we must come to transmitting results and election processes from polling units directly to the server.

 

Suleiman said that PUAN’s intention was to have five persons in each polling units in the country in 2023 to capture every electoral process.

 

He urged Anambra indigenes to observe the process and not allow any politician truncate it, adding that PUAN would give an unbiased report and share its observation with the Independent national Electoral Commission (INEC).

 

He said that PUAN would then share its opinion with INEC on the election and advise them on the challenges and solutions afterwards.