Edo poll: CSOs open situation room, seek peaceful election 

Stanley Ihedigbo

Stakeholders in Edo State Governorship election scheduled for 21st of September, have been urged to ensure a peaceful election in the state.

They also urged to uphold the highest professional standard in the conduct the election.

According to the Coordinator General, Edo Civil Society Organisations (EDOCSO), Leftist Omobude Agho, the Election Situation Room will be a 24 hour service aimed at receiving real time reports from our members and members of the public for instant analysis, assessment and reporting.

“Our phone numbers, Whatsapp numbers, social media handles, email and website will be utilized in receiving and responding to reports during pre-election, election and post-election happenings respectively.

“Our mantra for the Election Situation Room is christened ‘Eyes on the ball’. If we see it, we will not just report or say it, ‘We will shout it by all means until the world hears it, “he said.

He further said  they  therefore insisted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) give Edo people assurance by its actions and activities that, it is ready to conduct a free, fair and credible governorship election in Edo state, while calling on the security agencies, the Nigeria Police Force, Department of State Services (DSS), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the military not to take part in the rigging plans as been recorded previously or putting the lives of citizens in exacerbated fears and uncertainty.

“We hope that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) can for once wake up to one of its major responsibilities by channeling its energy chase after vote buyers and sellers during this election which is more of national sabotage than chasing after ‘yahoo boys’.

“First, we want to commend all the political parties in presenting what they perceived as their best for the election through primary electioneering processes, however, in some cases it was manipulated against the will of members of the party, while some candidates emerged not without skirmishes along the line, that duly observed and added to the history books and put behind now,

“We shall be looking through some pertinent issues as a civil rights coalition towards having a successful, credible, fair and free election in our dear Edo state. We observed that political party’s primaries are yet to be properly structured in reducing the incidents of post primaries litigations and media warfare. The internal conflict resolution mechanism in political parties have not been effective. While it is generally agreed that, primaries are internal affairs of political parties, it is also important for political parties to understand that the final outcome and who it throws up as a candidate at the end of the day has a long lasting impart on the general society,” they stated.

The group Coordinator noted that Edo State has relatively enjoyed peace, save in isolated cases of communal crisis and cult related killings.

“In the last presidential election, very low incident of violence was recorded in Edo state. The local government elections came with some records of higher violence due to its grassroots nature and the intent of the ruling party to take it all by force which is prevalent in local government council elections across the country.

“Worthy of mention in the forthcoming election is the incident that happened in the Benin airport on July 18th, 2024 involving the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Senator Monday Okpebholo and Rt. Hon. Philip Shaibu who came to Benin to enforce a purported court ruling reinstating him as the deputy governor. It was an unfortunate situation that saw to the death of one Inspector Akor Onu an orderly attached to Senator Monday Okpebholo.

“We use this medium to urge the Nigeria Police force to carry out discreet and unbias investigation on the matter to prove for once that the life of an ordinary Nigerian person is valuable.T here have been disturbing reports of violence in some parts of the state, political parties’ intolerance of each other. Physical attacks, destruction of campaign materials and personal properties have been reported as regular occurrence.

“We have also received credible reports of violence in some voters’ card collection centres where armed thugs harassed, threatened and chased away voters they can’t confirm their political party’s loyalty. The incidents of collection of voter’s card by proxies or by political party’s agents have become a common practice with the assured conspiracy of INEC officials, while security agencies look the other way to the helplessness of patriotic citizens with genuine voting intentions.

“Most very recently is the violent attack at Uhunmora in Owan west local government area where a young man beaten to a pulp and left in his pool of blood to die by a gang of political opponents. We have noted that instead of political parties to go about their campaigns and selling their manifestos to the people for informed decision on election day, they have imbibed a sad tradition of the use of vile and bile words against party candidates. They are expected to strictly stick to issues and ideologically based engagements that will better the lot of the people.

“Verbal attacks must be discouraged as it is capable of breeding bloody violence and eternal hate among supporters, instead we encourage that Manifestos must be compulsorily documented and freely made available to citizens for record and reference purposes. Candidates are expected to speak to issues and stop playing to the gallery during public outings and should call their online supporters to order as the verbal attacks are becoming more worrisome these days,” it stressed.

Agho emphasized that Edo State is known for its vibrancy, the continuous growth and development of the democracy rests on their collective and shared responsibility, as true democracy must demonstrate the will of the majority of the people and not that of a few persons in public institutions.

“We, as the consciousness of the society will not allow anything less in this forthcoming governorship election. As a civil society network spread across the 18 local government areas of the state, we will be putting in place modalities in ensuring all concerned play by the rules.

“We shall ensure that this election is done in the most tranquil and transparent circumstances where nobody, however highly placed he may be shall not be allowed to truncate the will of the people this time around,” he added.