The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, has appealed to youths of Rivers State to conduct themselves in peaceful manner as the 2023 general elections begins this Saturday.
Ogbuku made the appeal on Friday in Port Harcourt, the state capital, while speaking at a one-day workshop organised by the Commission and a non-governmental organization, Queen and Pet Koncept Initiative (QPKI).
The NDDC boss, who was represented by his Special Assistant on Youth, Matthew Dango, urged the youths to reject any inducement by any politician or their agents that would have change their decision from their preferred candidate.
He noted that violence brings major setbacks while electoral violence stampede on the progress of the nation, promotes aparthy and can also lead to death.
The NDDC Managing Director urged the youths to go out and vote their conscience and maintain peaceful dispositions through the period and even after.
He said: “Go out there and cast your votes to the candidate of your choice freely and peacefully, follow your minds, avoid any act that can disrupt the process, cause violence and probably lead to suspension of the poll, say no to all forms of violence in the elections.”
Speaking during the workshop, Director of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in the state, Dr. Yong Ayo-Tamuno, who assured of a peaceful elections in the state, pleaded with the youths to support the police on election duties in their place and say no to vote buying and selling.
Ayo-Tamuno said there was the need for everybody, particularly the youths to make the process free and peaceful by sticking to the rule of engagement; by saying no to violence at any time in the elections.
He said: “When you get to your polling unit, maintain the peace, maintain law and order, don’t get to the pathway law and order, so that we don’t have ourselves to blame.
“Cooperate and assist the Police and other security agencies on election duties in your areas by providing useful information that will promote the needed peaceful environment for the conduct of the process without hitches.
“Elections will come and go and our society will remain, if you kill anybody or decide to kill yourself, society will continue.”
In his comment, the spokesman of the QPKI, Sodin Akiagba, said the NGO was concerned about the safety of the electorate, following the increasing rate of electoral violence across the nation, hence the initiative.
Akiagba, who lauded NDDC for the support towards the success of the event, noted that the consequences of electoral violence cannot be over-emphasised, describing it as grave.
He said the workshop would be held beyond the nine state of the Niger Delta region to raise awareness through proper orientation on why the youths must stay away from electoral violence.
