Parties move to tackle members excesses

LEADERS of registered political parties in Nigeria yesterday moved against incendiary utterances from their members and candidates seeking various elective offices in the forthcoming elections. Their decision came on the heels of discovery of arms and ammunition being stockpiled by some politicians.
The leaders under the platform of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), said it was no longer in their interest and the country for their followers and candidates to continue to make inflammatory statements capable of overheating the polity and impeding the current transition programme.
To demonstrate its commitment to peace in the country, IPAC has undertaken a profile on each party, detailing violent acts, tendencies and preachments as well as overall compliance and non-compliance with members’ Code of Conduct, adding that a report would be made to INEC and other relevant agencies for necessary actions.
Last March 8, IPAC, comprising representatives of the nation’s political parties, signed up to a Code of Conduct to eschew violence during and after the elections and to sanction members over any breach of the code.
It was this same group that held a meeting with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday, where the decision to shift the National Assembly polls from last Monday to Saturday.
Chairman of IPAC, Chief Osita Okereke, warned yesterday in Abuja that the Council would not tolerate any resort to violence by any political party before, during and after the elections, which start on Saturday, beginning with the National Assembly polls.
Okereke said IPAC would also not condone a situation where political parties trade unfounded allegations and even extend such to the Federal Government and the INEC. Such allegations, he noted, were capable of undermining these institutions and precipitating crisis in the polity.
According to him, “IPAC, among others, has the responsibility to observe and monitor the implementation of the Code of Conduct 2011 and shall identify, investigate and sanction violation of the code by any political party in accordance with existing laws.
“IPAC is committed to ensuring strict compliance with the Code of Conduct because we believe it will conduce to peaceful electoral process. Violence will take us nowhere.  It will only cause hysteria in the polity and put the nation on the edge.  The nation can make progress peacefully and that is what IPAC seeks to achieve in concert with INEC.”
He cautioned that even in politics, there should be morality, adding that allegations should be properly channelled.
“There is need to reinforce the integrity of the electoral process. This cannot be done by making spurious and unfounded allegations as some parties and their leaders are now wont to do. Even if there are allegations that are genuine, there are formal and decorous processes of making them.  It is not by resorting to bashing or crucifixion in the media and it becomes really unfair in situations where such allegations are mere propaganda,” he said.
He appealed to Nigerians to go out en masse on Saturday to cast their votes for candidates of their choice, saying free, fair and credible elections would strengthen the nation’s democratic institutions.
But politicians in Ibadan, Oyo State appear indifferent to the bold initiative of IPAC, as the followers caused confusion at the Agodi gate yesterday. Hoodlums suspected to be sympathetic to the Accord Party (AP) and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were involved in the mayhem.
Trouble started when the podium erected by AP supporters at the Motor Parks Dealer Market at Agodi gate for their gubernatorial candidate, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, for a political rally ahead of Saturday’s National Assembly polls was allegedly destroyed by some armed youths.
The armed youths, who arrived the venue in a bus belonging to one of the local councils was said to have infuriated the AP supporters who mounted the podium, which resulted in a free for all.
Dangerous weapons, including guns, cutlasses and charms were used by the hoodlums during the crisis, which disrupted activities in the market as traders abandoned their wares to run for their lives.
In the ensuing melee, seven persons sustained various degrees of injury while three persons were arrested in connection with the mayhem.
The arrival of policemen saved the situation from degenerating as they moved to restore sanity by arresting culprits.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, Tunji Ajimuda, confirmed the incident saying three persons were being held for the violence.
Ladoja also yesterday accused Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala of directing the caretaker chairmen of the 33 local councils in the state to deliver their areas to the PDP in the Saturday’s National Assembly election or risk losing their jobs.
Alao-Akala was said to have given the order after reviewing the performance of the PDP in the botched National Assembly election at a stakeholders’ meeting on Tuesday at the Government House.
Ladoja, who spoke through the Director- General of his campaign organisation, Mr. Adeolu Adeleke, warned that the governor’s directive was an invitation to anarchy.
He called on the Inspector-General of Police, the Director-General of the SSS as well as INEC to probe the governor’s directive.
The Deputy Speaker of the Jigawa State House of Assembly, Alhaji Inuwa Sule Udi, has alleged that nocturnal attempts were being made by some opposition parties to disrupt the conduct of the forthcoming elections in the state.
At a stakeholders’ meeting convened by the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abdulrahman Akano in Dutse, Udi claimed that a series of clandestine meetings were held by the opposition to undermine peace in the state.
Meanwhile, the Administrative Secretary of INEC, Alhaji Bala Shittu, has said the omission of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) candidate’s names was responsible for the crisis within the party.
In Abuja yesterday, a member of the House of Representatives from Ondo State, Emmanuel Olutayo Adedeji, alleged that his opponents were threatening his life.
Adedeji, who represents the Ileoluji/Okeigbo/Odigbo Federal Constituency and the Chairman of the House Committee on States and Local Government Affairs, in a statement, claimed that those who were jittery as a result of his popularity had perfected plans to eliminate him before the Saturday’s elections.
He said: “I was hinted this morning that the PDP has perfected plans to kidnap me and take me out of circulation before the election. I reliably gathered that they are not comfortable with my electoral values in the constituency and would stop at nothing to ensure that they stop me.”
Adedeji recently defected from the PDP to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Another member of the Lower House, Lanre Agoro, has also raised an alarm over alleged threat to his life by suspected agents of the Oyo State government.
Agoro, who represents Irepo-Olorunsogo-Orelope Federal Constituency, recently decamped from the PDP to the ACN.
Addressing reporters at the party’s Yemetu office in Ibadan, Agoro fingered Governor Alao-Akala in the ploy to eliminate him by using police and officials of the SSS to harass him and his supporters.
But in his reaction, the Director of Publicity of Akala/Arapaja Campaign Organisation, Dr. Morounkola Thomas, said Agoro’s allegation was a criminal one that should be ignored.
Thomas said Agoro belongs to a violent and desperate party and should not be given any serious attention.
Since his defection to the ACN, Agoro alleged that he had been under incessant attacks and harassment from the PDP on trumped up allegations.
One of such is the arrest of two of his supporters by SSS officials last Thursday and their subsequent transfer to Abuja without being charged for any offence.

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