Group Tasks Rundele People On Violence-Free Election

A socio-political pressure
group, Rundele Peoples Assembly (RPA) in Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State, has urged people of the area to stand firm in the actualisation of violence free election in the 2015 general elections in the country.
Chairman of the assembly, Mr. Agbovu Daniel in his welcome aszation programme organised in the area said RPA was collaborating with numerous agencies to ensure active participation in politics as well as free and fair conduct of elections at all levels.
“Where the people are not equipped, educated and informed on the tenets of politics and result-oriented politics due to violence, politics with rancor and bitterness, the people are politically cheated”, he said, and urged all sons and daughters of Rundele, irrespective of class, sex or party differences to shun violence, chaos, anarchy and political rancour.
He stressed the need for peace and unity in Rundele, saying politics and political parties will come and go while Rundele remains an indivisible and indissoluble autonomous community whose developmental interest is far above that of any individual or group.
Presenting a paper at the event, the Head of Department, Political Science, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, Dr. Ben Thom-Otuya, identified greed, electoral abuse, marginalisation, poverty, lack of security, ideological bankruptcy as well as partisanship of traditional rulers among others as causes of violence in elections in Nigeria.
Thom-Otuya commended RPA for its creative and laudable programme saying,” electoral violence which has characterised Nigeria’s political elections since independence can be reversed only if we can change our mindset on what politics and governance is all about”.
“Politics should not be conceived as the most lucrative industry in Nigeria today. It is this mindset that makes aspirants or political office seekers to exhaust “all means’ in capturing the position”, he added.

Chris Oluoh