{"id":339422,"date":"2011-03-26T04:13:54","date_gmt":"2011-03-26T04:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/03\/26\/april-polls-our-fears-over-violence\/"},"modified":"2011-03-26T04:13:54","modified_gmt":"2011-03-26T04:13:54","slug":"april-polls-our-fears-over-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/april-polls-our-fears-over-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"April polls: Our fears over violence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Chioma Gabriel, Deputy Editor
Some concerned members of the political class are urging caution across the land following the spate of political violence in parts of the country ahead of next month\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n

In Akwa Ibom State alone, about 12 people were killed in two days of mayhem involving supporters of the ACN and PDP in Ikot Ekpene and Uyo.<\/p>\n

About 500 brand new tricycles and 200 cars also went with the violence.<\/p>\n

Similar violence has been recorded in Gombe, Plateau, Ekiti, Ogun, and Ondo states in the last few days raising tension in the country just a week to the commencement of the elections.<\/p>\n

Reacting to the development, Senator John Shagaya, a retired army general and former Internal Affairs Minister cautioned against \u201cdo-or-die elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gen. Shagaya who was a participant at this week\u2019s meeting of Northern Generals on the security situation in the North said:\u00a0 \u201cthe electorate should ensure they abide by the rules of the game or face the consequences.<\/p>\n

We need the voters to be very vigilant and ensure they comply with the electoral laws and report any electoral misdeed to the relevant authority.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoreover, the security organs that operate during the elections \u2014\u00a0 the police and the State Security Service, SSS \u2014 should\u00a0 monitor and bring to book,\u00a0 anybody who deviates from the rule or is caught causing problems or violence or engaging\u00a0 in acts that could trigger off violence during the elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cApart from being vigilant and doing the right things, we cannot expect free and fair elections to be held in any other way but I foresee\u00a0 successful elections . We should avoid\u00a0 \u201cdo-or-die\u201d elections by\u00a0 power-drunk, greedy, inordinate, overambitious and violent-oriented politicians who want to be in power by all means.\u201d<\/p>\n

*Blame incumbents \u2013 Masari
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Bello Masari blames the situation on incumbents who want to hang on to power by all means.<\/p>\n

\u201c I think those responsible for state security,\u00a0 that is governors and police should be able to tolerate opposition.<\/p>\n

The Justice Uwais\u2019 led Electoral Reform Panel was set up to find lasting solutions\u00a0 to the teething problems\u00a0 of\u00a0 how to reform the electoral system to the satisfaction of Nigerians, the ruling party \u2013 the Peoples Democratic Party and opposition political parties, without giving the ruling party an undue advantage over other parties.<\/p>\n

But in the bid of many politicians\u00a0 to clinch elective posts, they recruit youths as their thugs, provide them\u00a0 with security outfits as well as arms and ammunition in order to achieve their pre-conceived plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the campaign rallies of CPC, we visited some states in the North but the governors and the\u00a0 traditional rulers of the states\u00a0 were deliberately not available. \u201cThe governors left town and they obviously instructed the traditional rulers to do the same. In some states, incumbents denied opposition political parties campaign grounds for rallies. In some places, unprecedented violenceerupted.<\/p>\n

So, if governors should be tolerant of opposition and stop using police and traditional institutions to stop opposition, there would be hitch-free elections\u201d<\/p>\n

*Let\u2019s have issue-based elections \u2013 Utomi
Professor Pat Utomi, presidential candidate of Social Democratic Mega Party, SDMP, is confident that\u00a0 \u201cif elections were based on convincing\u00a0 issues, rather than desperation for power, violence would be reduced. If politics is for service and\u00a0 not for power, violence will be reduced.<\/p>\n

The desperation for power\u00a0 will cause people to kill but if politics is about issues, you will not want to hurt anybody.
\u201c Moreover, the Nigerian political structure\u00a0 makes politics quite attractive.\u00a0 Some of the people\u00a0 in power today were riff-raff\u00a0 yesterday and they will kill to stay there. People who achieved greatness in their various fields before joining politics will not kill but those who make politics\u00a0 a means of livelihood would kill to remain in that business.<\/p>\n

That is why we need politics of values and character; we need issue-based politics to\u00a0 reduce electoral violence.<\/p>\n

*The violence is worrisome \u2013 Oyovbaire
Former Information Minister, Professor Sam Oyovbaire said: \u201cpolitical violence is a worrisome development and political office contestants are to be blamed for this. Those with incumbent power want to entrench themselves and they feel threatened by opposition. Very many of them didn\u2019t have the will of the people but they want to sustain themselves in power.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrimaries are not properly conducted in many places and some of the protests come from people who have lost out. So, our politicians need to restrain themselves and bear in mind that if things are destroyed, nobody would be in power and to sustain power, nobody should be threatened.<\/p>\n

The electoral umpire itself needs to do its home work. INEC at the top is not the same thing with INEC at the bottom.\u00a0 At the bottom level are\u00a0 those who execute the directions from the top. They\u00a0 are low-level officers involved in the\u00a0 process of counting votes and the returning officers .<\/p>\n

These are\u00a0 not clean and they fall to the\u00a0 urge to make money from\u00a0 politicians. INEC should therefore hold sessions with this level of officers\u00a0 to ensure that those recruited restrain themselves from\u00a0 taking bribe from politicians.<\/p>\n

*Politicians should get worried \u2013 Uba Ahmed
Former Senator and Minister, Alhaji Uba Ahmed said: \u201cWhen\u00a0 well-structured\u00a0 politics don\u2019t exist and\u00a0 no national\u00a0 issue is\u00a0 being debated, what will come up is violence. A normal politician should be worried about what is happening in the Arab world. Oil is becoming hard to come by and desperation is breeding violence.<\/p>\n

The West cannot get oil in Venezuela and where they get to buy, they meet stiff competition from China. So, the politicians should be worried.<\/p>\n

They should be thinking of the security we have in this country but unfortunately, they don\u2019t see us as next victims. Politicians are just after office. That is why you see some politicians moving\u00a0 from one party to another, not on principle, but for\u00a0 the quest for power and money. When every citizen is politically alienated, there will be a\u00a0 revolution.<\/p>\n

That was what happened in Cuba and\u00a0 in China that brought about a revolution and that is what is\u00a0 happening to the Arab world today. Nigeria should be wary of the situation in the Arab world and take the issue of security seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Comments are moderated. Please keep them clean and brief.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.<\/a>
\nblog comments powered by <\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p>\n

Visit link:
\nApril polls: Our fears over violence<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chioma Gabriel, Deputy Editor Some concerned members of the political class are urging caution across the land following the spate of political violence in parts of the country ahead of next month\u2019s elections. In Akwa Ibom State alone, about 12 people were killed in two days of mayhem involving supporters of the ACN and PDP in Ikot Ekpene and Uyo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-339422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nApril polls: Our fears over violence - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/april-polls-our-fears-over-violence\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"April polls: Our fears over violence - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"By Chioma Gabriel, Deputy Editor Some concerned members of the political class are urging caution across the land following the spate of political violence in parts of the country ahead of next month\u2019s elections. In Akwa Ibom State alone, about 12 people were killed in two days of mayhem involving supporters of the ACN and PDP in Ikot Ekpene and Uyo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/april-polls-our-fears-over-violence\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/april-polls-our-fears-over-violence\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"April polls: Our fears over violence\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-03-26T04:13:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/april-polls-our-fears-over-violence\/\"},\"wordCount\":1065,\"commentCount\":0,\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/april-polls-our-fears-over-violence\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/april-polls-our-fears-over-violence\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/april-polls-our-fears-over-violence\/\",\"name\":\"April polls: Our fears over violence - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-03-26T04:13:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/april-polls-our-fears-over-violence\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"April polls: Our fears over violence - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/april-polls-our-fears-over-violence\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"April polls: Our fears over violence - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"By Chioma Gabriel, Deputy Editor Some concerned members of the political class are urging caution across the land following the spate of political violence in parts of the country ahead of next month\u2019s elections. In Akwa Ibom State alone, about 12 people were killed in two days of mayhem involving supporters of the ACN and PDP in Ikot Ekpene and Uyo","twitter_creator":"@ghanamma","twitter_site":"@ghanamma","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/april-polls-our-fears-over-violence\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/april-polls-our-fears-over-violence\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"April polls: Our fears over violence","datePublished":"2011-03-26T04:13:54+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/april-polls-our-fears-over-violence\/"},"wordCount":1065,"commentCount":0,"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/april-polls-our-fears-over-violence\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/april-polls-our-fears-over-violence\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/april-polls-our-fears-over-violence\/","name":"April polls: Our fears over violence - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-03-26T04:13:54+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/april-polls-our-fears-over-violence\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}