The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) in Ondo state Tuesday called on stakeholders to allow peace reign as the October 10, 2020 governorship election approaches.
Speaking in Akure, Ondo state capital, at a press conference, chairman of CNPP in the state, Comrade Rotimi Boboye, said the group observed the recourse to violence, intimidation and subterfuge by officials of the All Progressive Congress (APC) government.
While the group noted that these dangerous developments were manifested in the recent local government election largely boycotted by many political parties, few CNPP members participated.
Not less than forty chairmen and secretaries of different political parties were in attendance at the media conference.
The chairman said: “That in the said sham of council election, not only were candidates of participating parties intimidated, harassed and violently assaulted, voters were disenfranchised and figures concocted to meet the pre-planned agenda of the APC government.
“Rather than abate, such violence have taken new dimensions with meetings of political parties being invaded by known thugs/members of the APC, their cronies and agents”.
The CNPP stated that it is aware that the violence may not be unconnected with the well articulated, though sinister position expressed by Isaac’s D. Kekemeke, a self confessed militant of the APC, who not only boasted of being in possession of high calibre arms, but went ahead to name known harbingers of violence that are to be recruited to cause mayhem from within and without the state.
He added that across the state are confirmed incidences of battered heads, broken limbs and bruised bodies which aligned with the alleged ‘strategy’ openly canvassed by Kekemeke and which is yet to be condemned by his party, the APC.
The conference of parties noted that these have also been followed with illegal arrests, dehumanising treatment and detention of members of the opposition parties across the state by police and military officers. He said the ruling party sees it as a dress rehearsal to show the ‘preparedness” of the ‘war mongers’ to let loose violence on the opposition and the electorate in the state.
CNPP reiterated that as most citizens were students of history and they know what happened in the 1983 political crisis when fine citizens were killed in politically induced violence, the state will not be tolerant of any attempt to repeat such needless violence in the name of politics.
The group attached to their statement recorded evidence of violence, brigandage and election manipulation in the state for information and expects immediate action from all concerned.
The CNPP said the only way to avoid a sad repeat of the events of the better forgotten experience is to call to order all involved in the violence in the interest of peace and called on the President and Commander in Chief of the armed forces, the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Inspector General of Police and all the service chiefs, particularly the Directorate of State Service (DSS) to take immediately step in to discourage the legitimisation of violence and the destruction of fledgling democracy in the country.
