THE Jigawa State Police Command has held a peace conference for political parties’ leaders and their candidates with a view to finding lasting solutions to the current violence in the state.
Opening the event, the Police Area Commander (Birnin Kudu Division), Mr. Felix Gani, said the conference was held to provide avenue for the command, political party leaders and candidates to fine-tune measures for ensuring peaceful conduct of political campaigns and hitch-free elections next month.
Gani accused the candidates of sponsoring thugs and providing youths with drugs and other intoxicants to prepare them for political violence against their opponents.
The police boss also accused politicians of meddling in the command’s activities, which he said, had created problems for his men to take measures to prevent or avert political violence on several occasions in the state.
He charged politicians to uphold the ethics of democracy by respecting one another’s opinion as enshrined in the Electoral Act and in Nigerian Constitution.
But a member of the state House of Assembly, Adamu Sarki Miga, urged the police to always be neutral in political parties’ cases to earn the confidence of the people.
Meanwhile, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the state has berated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over its alleged perchance for staging night rallies and campaigns with the aim of getting at the opposition under the cover of darkness.
The party’s candidate for the House of Representatives for the Birninkudu/Buji Federal Constituency, Magaji Dau Aliyu, told The Guardian that nine CPC supporters were injured in attacks that occurred at Yalwan Damai Village in Birnin Kudu Local Council.
“There are so many things wrong with night campaigns because people will stay behind to lynch others. Last week, we were lynched and wounded in a ward in Gwaya in Birninkudu Local Council, nine people were seriously wounded by the PDP.
“There is no need for me to want to represent people and at the same time want them dead. The police have the statistics; we have over 30 cases with the police against the other people, so it is left for them to do their work. We assure you we will be law-abiding and we will not campaign in the night”.
The PDP state Public Relations Officer, Aminu Jahun, said the CPC’s candidate deliberately visited the village to cause chaos, as he was aware that ruling party was holding a rally in the area.
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