Ahead of the November 11 gubernatorial election in Kogi State, a group, Kogi East Patriotic Association (KOEPA) has warned politicians to refrain from perpetrating violence and give room for a peaceful election.
The group lamented that violence is taking centre stage as the state continues to prepare for the election.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, the Convener of KOEPA, Abdulkadir Ojonugwa, said as bonafide citizens of Kogi State from Kogi East, it is their desire to see a peaceful and credible election in our dear state.
“We have been monitoring developments in the state since the beginning of the campaign for the Kogi State governorship election, and the trend of a campaign of ethnic divisionism and violence has not escaped our attention”, he stated.
He said recently, a senior Police officer was almost lynched allegedly by suspected thugs of politicians in the state.
“We must call on the highest authorities of the Nigeria Police to swiftly arrest all individuals who were involved in that dastardly act”, he noted.
Furthermore, he lamented that these politicians who perpetrate this act of violence as still seen parading the state without being arrested to answer for their atrocities.
Ojonugwa said severally the Nigerian police had invited these politicians to answer for their actions but they ignored the invitation and continued perpetrating evil in the state.
“To all intents and purposes, if the Police invite an individual who has no constitutional immunity and he ignores them, that is criminal in nature, and such an individual should be declared wanted and arrested”, he noted.
The KOEPA convener, however, said that the people in Kogi East are getting fed up with all these violent shenanigans and if the Police and the state government refuse to do the needful, the people of Kogi East will have no choice but to effect a citizens’ arrest of the suspected perpetrators of the violence and hand them over to the authorities.
. TheWitness
