The Oba of Benin, Oba Erediauwa, yesterday, warned against the postponement of the forthcoming general elections, describing it as a call to chaos and anarchy.
He predicted that the elections will be peaceful, but warned supporters of both President Goodluck Jonathan and Gen.Muhammadu Buhari to stop utterances capable of creating tension in the country.
The Benin monarch spoke through the Benin Forum, an umbrella body for all Binis at home and in Diaspora, led by the Esogban of Benin Kingdom, Chief David Edebiri. The forum is regarded as the mouth piece of the reverred monarch.
In a statement signed by Edebiri and General Secretary of the Forum, Barr. Henry Ogbodu (SAN), the monarch also urged the Binis in Edo South to ensure that they pick their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to ensure that they vote candidates of their choice, asserting that the Binis as a race can no longer afford to play the second fiddle in any future Federal Government in Nigeria.
“The Forum frowns at the activities of few anti-democratic forces who in recent times called for the shifting of the elections to a future date citing the ongoing distribution of the PVCs as a reason for such a mischievous call. The Benin Forum emphatically calls on the relevant authorities to ignore the unpatriotic suggestion which to all intents and purposes is a direct invitation to chaos and anarchy. The election must hold in February 2015 as scheduled to save our nascent democracy,” the statement read.