Group Urges Peace At LG Polls

A Non Governmental Organisation, the Elele Peace Initiative (E P I ) has called on all the major stakeholders in the forthcoming council polls in the state to ensure peaceful non violent election.
President- General of E P I, Comrade Chidi Wadah, made the appeal Saturday in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt.
Wadah noted that since 1999, Nigeria has experienced uninterrupted democracy in spite of  few hitches and stressed the need for politicians to be transparent and peaceful.
The President-General while assessing the Congresses of the All Progressive Congress (APC), and primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP,) in the state said PDP has demonstrated that it is one family through the way they handled their primary elections.
“PDP conducted its primaries few months ago and Gov Nyesom Wike, waded into areas that could have resulted to crisis and the process was concluded amicably as a family.
“But you cannot say the same thing about APC Congress which remains inconclusive with litigation’s here and there. It is difficult to mention a state in the country where APC Congress went peacefully”, he said.
He attributed the crisis in APC to clash of personal interest of individual leaders  and advised the party to show some level of maturity and prove that it is a family.
“We need peace in the state . It is only peace that can bring about development . Politicians should try to exhibit sportsmanship”, he stated.
Wadah explained that as a peace initiative, EPI has met with appropriate authorities ,the traditional rulers and organisations and that they have assured it of peace in the forthcoming local government election.
“Youths must shun violence, snatching of ballot boxes and only vote with their candidate of choice with their Permanent VotersCards,” he said.

Chris Oluoh