The Edo Civil Society Organisations, EDOSCO, a coalition of civil societies in the state, has condemned the spate of political violence ahead of the September 21, 2024, governorship election.
DAILY POST reports that the group noted that there have been disturbing reports of violence in some parts of the state and intolerance among political parties.
The group also listed physical attacks and destruction of campaign materials and personal properties as cases that have been reported as regular occurrences.
A statement signed by Omobude Agho, Coordinator-General, and Godspower Okumbor, Secretary-General, respectively, made available to DAILY POST on Tuesday in Benin City, said the group also received credible reports of violence in some voters’ card collection centres.
Agho alleged that the armed thugs harassed, threatened and chased away voters and it was difficult to confirm which party they were loyal to.
According to him, the most recent is the violent attack at Uhunmora in Owan West Local Government Area, where a young man was beaten by a gang of political opponents and left for dead.
“The incidents of collection of voter cards by proxies or by political party’s agents have become a common practice with the assured conspiracy of INEC officials, while security agencies look the other way to the helplessness of patriotic citizens with genuine voting intentions.
“Verbal attacks must be discouraged as they are capable of breeding bloody violence and eternal hate among supporters; instead, we encourage that manifestos must be compulsorily documented and freely made available to citizens for record and reference purposes.
“Candidates are expected to speak to issues and stop playing to the gallery during public outings and should call their online supporters to order as the verbal attacks are becoming more worrisome these days.
“We, as the consciousness of society, will not allow anything less in this forthcoming governorship election. As a civil society network spread across the 18 local government areas of the state, we will be putting in place modalities to ensure all concerned play by the rules.
“We shall ensure that this election is done in the most tranquil and transparent circumstances where nobody, however highly placed he may be, shall be allowed to truncate the will of the people this time around,” he said.
Agho, who commended the political parties for presenting what they perceived as their best for the election through primary electioneering processes, noted that in some cases the primaries were manipulated against the will of members of the party.
The EDOSCO Coordinator-General noted that the state has relatively enjoyed peace, save for isolated cases of communal crises and cult-related killings.
He opined that in the last presidential election, very few incidents of violence were recorded in Edo State, while the local government elections came with some records of higher violence due to their grassroots nature and the intent of the ruling party to take it all by force, which he noted is prevalent in local government council elections across the country.
“Worthy of mention in the forthcoming election is the incident that happened in the Benin airport on July 18, 2024, involving the governorship candidate of the APC, Senator Monday Okpebholo and Rt. Hon. Philip Shaibu, who came to Benin to enforce a purported court ruling reinstating him as the deputy governor.
“It was an unfortunate situation that saw to the death of Inspector Akor Onu, an orderly attached to Senator Monday Okpebholo,” he said.
He called on the Nigeria Police Force to carry out discreet and unbiased investigations on the matter to prove for once that the life of an ordinary Nigerian person is valuable.
He urged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to give Edo people assurance of its readiness to conduct a free, fair and credible governorship election in Edo State.
The group called on the Nigeria Police Force, DSS, NSCDC and the military not to aid and abet rigging. It also appealed to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to hunt for vote buyers and sellers during this election.
The coalition announced the official launch of its situation room for the governorship election, which would run from pre- to post-election days.
The 24-hour service situation room was aimed at receiving real-time reports from members and members of the public for instant analysis, assessment and reporting.
Edo: CSOs condemn political parties’ violence ahead guber election