From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has appealed to the political actors in the Saturday governorship elections to play the game according to the rule in the interest of peace, saying the ugly situation people went through in the last House of Assembly elections should not repeat itself.
Mohammed Othman Abdullahi , the State Director of NOA who made the appeal in Lokoja Wednesday during a road walk organised by the agency to sensitize the electorate and political actors on the need for the peaceful conduct of the governorship election , said elections should not be seen or considered as a do or die affairs.
“The ugly incident of the last elections which include intimidation, harassment, ballot box snatching , destruction of election materials should not be allow to happen again.
“This time around we don’t want such things again and that was the basis of our moving round the state capital which is going on simultaneously across the local government areas in the state to educate our people on the effect of electoral violence.” the NOA boss said
The NOA boss explained that the aims of the programme among other things was to preach against bribery/inducement of voters, hate speeches, fake news and voting rightly and correctly to avoid the high rate of invalid votes as experienced in the previous elections in the state.
While calling on the electorate to come out enmass and vote for the candidate of their choice on Saturday, Abdullahi, advised them not to be scare , saying the Police Force and other security agents have assured that they have prepared adequately to secure the safety of the electorates during the election.
“The people should come out to perform their civic responsibility, we are also appealing to the political actors not to tear the state apart because of election , the contestants and their supporters should give peace a chance interest of the state” he said
A member of Civil Society Organisation , Mr Moses Musa who participated in the road walk commended NOA for their effort in ensuring that the people at the grassroots were sensitized on how best to caste their vote , which he said has been a major problem during election .
He however appealed to political parties in the state to devote their time and energy to collaborate with NOA in voters education and other activities that can improve the electoral process.
