The President of the Plateau Initiative for Development and Advancement of the Natives, Dr. Aboi Madaki, has encouraged Nigerians resident in Plateau State to ensure that the forthcoming elections are violence free.
MPIDAN president tasks Plateau citizens on violence-free elections
Madaki disclosed this Saturday during a one-day sensitization talk on: “Voters Education and Strategies for Elections and Post-election Violence Risk Reduction.”
It was organised for leaders of ethnic Community Development Associations in Plateau State.
The Programme was Organized by PIDAN in collaboration with King David Generation.
Madaki stressed the need for government to deploy skills, knowledge and tactics to ensure a smooth conduct of the elections and control election-related violence.
He called on the community leaders to disseminate the information and strategize for the benefit of the people within the week so as to achieve smooth and violence free elections in Plateau State.
Madaki emphasized the need to educate the leadership of the associations and by extension the followership on voters rights, privileges and how to vote in this era of electronic reader machine.
According to him, it was to also agree on a framework with the Independent National Electoral Commission, security agencies and community leaders on how to work together towards curbing elections-related violence in the forthcoming elections.
He pointed out that the 2011 elections in Nigeria was greeted with post-election violence, leading to loss of lives and properties in some states in Northern Nigeria.
He said Plateau State has had its own share of election-related violence where many people are of the view that the 2015 elections carry with it the potential for intra- and post-election violence.
Madaki urged all well meaning Nigerians on the Plateau to deploy tactics that support “our cause and whatever strategy we may agree on so that together we can achieve a violence free election and further more strengthen the spirit of love among people”.
Speaking on: “Strategies for reducing risks of violence during and after the general elections,” the Guest Speaker, Dr. Elias Nankap Lamle, said since the country gained independence in 1960, violence and myriad irregularities have persistently marred the process of electing the country’s leaders.