BARBARA BAKO, Abuja.
The National Peace Committee for the 2019 general elections has called for the cooperation of all stakeholders in the electoral process in order to create conducive environment for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct free, fair and credible elections in 2019.
The Committee said it was confident that the Commission is ready to conduct general elections with the full support of all actors in the process. The Chairman of the National Peace Committee, General Abdulsalam Abubakar (Retired), made the call today while briefing journalists after a meeting with the INEC Chairman, Professor Yakubu Mahmood, in Abuja.
The Chairman of the Peace Committee said the meeting was convened to get briefing from the INEC Chairman on the Commissions level of preparations and areas where the Peace Committee can support INEC to achieve the aim of peaceful polls in 2019. Abdulsalam said: “We invited the Chairman of INEC and for the last one hour or so he has briefed us on the preparation for the elections, his challenges and what he is going to do in order to make sure there is successful free and fair elections.
I have take notes such as flash areas in the states where he wants the Peace Committee to intervene in order to bring peace so that elections will be conducted. “On our part we will do the best we can in order to help sanitize the political arena. You members of the press have also a role and a duty to educate our people and the politicians so that when they go on campaigning, they campaign on issues and there should be politics without bitterness, there should be no rancor”.
The Committee Chairman urge the support of media in the area of voter education and citizen’s sensitization. He said, “You will also help us educate our citizens so that they will avoid being used as thugs during campaign and during elections. You should also help us educate Nigerians on their citizen’s rights to ensure that they collect their PVCs and ensure that their names are properly registered, to avoid ballot box snatching and all types of hooliganism during the elections.”
Abdulsalam disclosed that the National Peace Committee was going to meet with leaders of political parties and subsequently get Presidential Candidates and Party Chairmen to sign a peace accord before the 2019 general elections. He said “The next stage is that we are going to meet with Chairmen and Secretaries of Political Parties tomorrow in order to discuss and also listen to them to see how we can make progress.
After the meeting with the political parties, we are going to draw a memorandum of understanding for peace and tranquility and this we hope will be signed by all the presidential candidates and the Chairmen of the registered parties”. “Our people should realize that peace is very paramount in every society, there must be peace before we conduct elections and there must be peace before we have a country”, General Abdulsalam stressed.
Responding to journalists on the purpose of the meeting after the briefing, the INEC Chairman, Professor Yakubu Mahmood, said “We are here to brief the committee on our preparations for the elections, we have told them everything that we have been doing to ensure free, fair and credible elections including the registration of voters, making the PVCs available for collection well ahead of the elections and some of the issues and challenges that we are facing for which we have sought the for the support of the National Peace Committee.
“So basically this is a routine meeting with the National Peace Committee and more of these interactions are planned ahead of the signing of the National Peace Accord involving the presidential candidates and the Chairmen of political parties and we’ll also continue this kind of interaction with other stakeholders as the elections approach.”
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