A group, under the aegis of the Committee for the Protection of Peoples Mandate (CPPM), has urged that the 2024 Edo State Gubernatorial Election slated for September 21, 2024, must be free, fair, and credible, calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to be distracted but remain focused, professional and unbiased in the discharge of its functions.
This was just as the civil society organisation strongly condemned the utterances and conduct of the state governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, who it alleged had continued to fan the embers of violence, saying that it wanted to be placed on record, that the governor should be held responsible for any breakdown of law and order on election day or after.
CPPM gave the charge in a release issued on Monday by its Executive Director, Comrade Nelson Ekujumi, expressing displeasure and condemnation in its entirety with pockets of violence that had trailed the campaigns pre-election proper, but quickly called on the security agencies to remain committed to its core functions of maintaining law and order, before, during and after the poll exercise.
The civil society group, while expressing absolute confidence in the ability and competence of INEC to conduct a free, fair, and credible election, argued that this can only be achieved by all the stakeholders playing by the rules of engagement, “because INEC alone cannot do it.”
It, therefore, charged the electoral umpire “to remain focused, professional and unbiased in the discharge of its functions and not allow the usual campaign of blackmail and calumny against it at every election season, to derail or weaken it’s resolve to conduct a successful election like it has always done.”
The group charged the media and the accredited observer organizations to maintain neutrality and professionalism in the discharge of their duties during the elections to help deepen the tenets of democracy.
Besides, CPPM also admonished the electorate to eschew violence and keep the peace, before, during, and after the poll exercise for the progress and prosperity of Edo State which it said should be uppermost in the minds of every Edolites.
The group urged the electorate to come out en mass on election day to cast their vote for the candidates of their choice peacefully and orderly, just as it equally demanded that the political parties participating in the election educate their members on the non-negotiable need to keep the peace before, during and after election.”
“We demand that the political parties participating in the election educate their members on the non-negotiable need to keep the peace before, during, and after election.
“We urge dissatisfied parties and candidates with the outcome of the election, to seek redress via the civilised means of engagement and refrain from provoking a breakdown of law and order,” the group said.
CPPM, while flaying Governor Obaseki’s utterances and conduct in continuing “to fan the embers of violence in utter violation of his oath and disrespect for his office,” noted that the governor had been reported by the media as promising to make the election a do or die affair.
The group, therefore, demanded that the governor be placed on security watchlist as an instigator of violence, even as it quickly reminded that in September 2020 when Governor Obaseki was seeking re-election for a second term, he, “on the day of voting, after casting his ballot at his polling station in the morning, made all sorts of allegations of bias and compromise against INEC and the Nigeria Police Force, only for the same Mr. Obaseki to make a 360° u-turn and described the same election he had earlier described as a fraud and compromised, as the best election ever conducted by INEC and went on to heap praises on INEC and the Police for their professionalism, after he was declared the winner and re-elected for a second term.”
“As the good people of Edo State go to the polls on Saturday 21st of September 2024 to elect a new helmsman to direct the affairs of the state for the next four years, the Committee for the Protection of Peoples Mandate (CPPM) is eagerly looking forward to the conduct of a free, fair and credible election which can only be achieved by all the stakeholders observing the rules of engagements in order to deepen our democracy,” the group said in conclusion.