HDP Prescribes Drastic Measures Against Election Violence

The presidential can
didate of Hope Democratic Party in the 2011 presidential election in Nigeria, Chief Ambrose Owuru, has called on the Federal Government to take drastic measures to put a stop to killings and violence in elections in the country.
Speaking with newsmen recently in Port Harcourt, Chief Owuru blamed poor governance for rigging and violence in the country’s elections.
According to him, elections in Nigeria today were for those who have the money and influence to pave their way to power, irrespective of the person’s pedigree and popularity.
Chief Owuru said there will be a peaceful and truly democratic Nigeria if the Federal Government would take the prosecution of any person found guilty in violence and rigging in any election in the country seriously.
He called on politicians to resist violence and rigging during election, saying that no amount of intimidation of the people can make a leader rule peacefully, if the people don’t want him.
Chief Owuru also accused the Nigeria judiciary for not being independent enough to judge matters uprightly without the interference of the government of the day.
Chief Owuru further blamed elections malpractices on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security agencies.
He said INEC and the security agencies always influenced the process to favour the political party in power.
He said, Nigeria had never got it right in all the elections so far conducted in the country, adding there had always been incidences of snatching of electoral materials, violently chasing the electorates out of the voting process as well as inflating of figures.

Enoch Epelle