Plateau Peace and Mediation Committee (PMWC) has advised political leaders to caution their followers more deliberately to reduce the present animosity that has been developing along political divides based on the candidature of the major gubernatorial candidates in today’s election.
PMWC also called on religious and traditional/community leaders to use their influence to call political actors to order and to reach out to their followers to eschew all manner of evil speaking which they, as moral custodians, have responsibility to discharge.
Chairman of the committee, Dr Dinshak Luka Dajahar and the vice chairman, Ms Kaneng Tabitha Pam-Hworo stated this while addressing newsmen in Jos.
Peace and Mediation Working Committee (PMWC) is a platform established by the Youth Initiative Against Violence and Human Rights Abuse (YLAVHA) with support from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED, Kimpact Development Initiative (KD) and the International Republican Imine (IRI).
The committee was commissioned on February 16, 2023 with a mandate to observe the electioneering environment and engage with other relevant stakeholders to develop the capacity to address emerging issues in a build-up to the general election.
PMWC admonished the electorate to know that politicians have their own interests to win the elections and achieve their own life ambitions adding that they should not allow themselves to be used to further the politicians’ ambitions but rather their own goals which should be good governance that will give them the needed environment to flourish.
“People must resist buying and selling of votes. No politician who is aspiring to provide governance would want to buy votes from you rather than to convince you on how to address emerging challenges that have impoverished the people and have made life solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”
He urged the people to resist taking the law into their hands and report any incident to law enforcement agencies during and after the elections stressing that there is no doubt that the presidential and national assembly elections in Plateau state were generally peaceful.
“We cannot afford to do less but do better in the gubernatorial and house of assembly elections. This can only happen when all stakeholders work together to ensure free and fair elections. If we allow violence to prevail, we will all be the losers. Whoever emerges after the elections in an objective process, Plateau and Nigeria have won.”
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