Conduct Credible Poll, EDO Civil Society Urge INEC, Decry Abusive Campaigns

Ahead the September 21 Edo State Governorship election, Edo Civil Society Organizations(EDOSCO) has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to make the election free, fair and credible.
EDOCSO, which has opened a situation room for the election, charged INEC at a press conference in Benin to assure Edo people by its actions and activities that it is ready for election.
The Coordinator-General of EDOSCO, Leftist Omobude Agho, stated, “While calling on our security agencies, the police, DSS, NSCDC and the military not to take part in the rigging plans as 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 energies to chase after vote buyers and sellers during this election which is more of national sabotage than chasing after ‘Yahoo boys’.”
According to EDOCSO, “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.”
On pre-election violence, EDOCSO stressed, “Worthy of mention in the forthcoming election is the incident that happened at the Benin Airport on July 18th involving the governorship candidate of the 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 unbiased investigation on the matter to prove for once that the life of an ordinary Nigerian person is valuable.
“There 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.
“Edo Civil Society Organization is excited to announce the official launch of our Situation Room for the 2024 Edo Governorship Election. The Election Situation room will run from 3rd day of September,2024 to the post-election days.”