By Balarabe Oshiafi
The political parties and their governorship candidates in this Saturday’s election in Anambra State have signed a Peace Accord.
On the occasion in Awka, the Chairman National Peace Committee General Abdulsalami Abubakar said that democracy can thrive where human lives are held sacred. Represented by General Martin Luther Agwai, General Abdulsalami Abubakar told the Candidates that signing of the Peace Accord represents their commitments, discipline and a call for responsibility on their part to ensure the success of the polls.
In a message, INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan said Anambra Governorship Election was his first major assignment and said INEC remain committed to conducting free fair and peaceful election.
He called on Candidates and their supporters to support the commission to deliver credible polls by playing by the rules and urged them to respect the principles and letters of the accord they signed.
Professor Amupitan said INEC had fine tuned it’s deployment arrangements and that voters should expect a significant improvement of logistics on election day.
He emphasised that the commission with other security agencies would resist vote buying by arresting and prosecuting offenders.
Professor Amupitan announced that INEC would deploy 24,000 personnel across 5,718 polling units, in 326 wards collation centres in 21 Local Government Areas.
He added that the Commission has approved the final Voter register of 2,802,790 and that 16 political parties would participate in the election.
The Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun said that they have developed an integrated operation plan to secure election process from beginning till the results are announced.
Represented by the DIG in charge of Intelligence, Benjamin Okolo explain that they would work with other sister agencies to deploy sufficient officers as the Peace of Anambra State was non negotiable.
He also announced the withdrawal of security personnel from VIPs and other political appointees on election day.
In a peace message, the Chairman, Inter Party Advisory Council, IPAC, Comrade Uchenna Ugwuorji urged political parties, Candidates to be lawful before, during and after the election.
He also urged security agencies to be professional and not allow themselves to be used to intimidate other candidates and their supporters.
He urged the Candidates to seek redress in the court if they did not accept the outcome of the election.
The Convener of the National Peace Committee and the Bishop of Sokoto Archdiocese, Most Reverend Hassan Mathew Kukah appealed to the Political Parties and their supporters to abide by the agreement they entered into for a credible and violence free election to be realised this Saturday.
The Governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Soludo expressed gratitude to the National Peace Committee members for the initiative.
Governor Soludo urged his counterparts in the forthcoming Governorship election to internalise the peace accord they signed as it was a sacred oath.
He urged INEC to ensure that they do the needful and ensure that the will of the people prevail on the November 8th Governorship Elections.
