Ondo Governorship Election: IPCR Calls For Violence-Free Election

By: Michael Mike

The Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) has called for violence-free Ondo State gubernatorial election.

The Institute said as the preparations for the conduct of the election has reached an advanced stage with the date fixed and logistical arrangements concluded, there’s need for a robust sensitization campaign focused on the achievement of a peaceful process, adding that the imperative for peace in electoral systems, irrespective of locations and geographies, is very critical because it guarantees viability and ultimately, sustainability.

The Institute said it is very important, aside being peaceful that the election is also credible and acceptable by the local and International community.

It would be recalled that the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), the Nigerian government agency responsible for the promotion of peace and conflict management, has since inception in 2000 been playing the pivotal and nation-building role of mobilizing and sensitizing the Nigerian citizenry towards the pursuit of, and conduct of peaceful elections devoid of acrimonies and impliedly, any form of volatility.

A statement signed on Monday by the Director General, Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), Dr. Joseph Ochogwu read: “On the imperative of violence-free elections in Ondo state, the IPCR said that ‘Peace’ remains the stimulating and sustaining energy driving the socio-economic and political development of all organized states.

“It can be argued that it is the relative peace attained in the democratic space over these years – as fostered by IPCR and other Peacebuilding actors – that has guaranteed the stability of the Nigerian electoral system beyond its shaky beginnings. This notable achievement is no doubt connected to the recently celebrated twenty five years of unbroken democratic culture in the country.”

The statement further read that: “The Nigerian democratic experience is unique because it pursues the overall interest of the public, in addition to guaranteeing citizens’ rights to demand accountability from elected officials in honour of the tenets of the social contract covenant as universally prescribed by classical socio-political and moral thinkers like Grotius, Kant, Hobbes and Gentili. No doubt, this is what justifies and gives credence to the system. Also, this necessitates the urgency for securing the process by ensuring that nothing related to violence occurs during the Ondo elections.”

Ochogwu said: “In order to ensure a smooth and violence-free electoral process, the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolutions proffers the following recommendations;

“All stakeholders to the Ondo state elections should collaboratively ensure that the space is detoxified so that characteristically provocative utterances and accompanying hate speeches that fly across political party divides during important electoral cycles like the forthcoming elections are checked.

“The Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) equally considers it necessary to request that the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALWs) rise to their responsibility by ensuring an effective monitoring of the Ondo electoral spaces towards guaranteeing that arms proliferation before, during and after the elections are indeed controlled.

“In the same spirit, the NDLEA and the NAFDAC should work assiduously while heading-towards the achievement of their noble goal of cutting-off access to illicit drugs flow whiles at the same time severing the networks that service the drug needs of would-be violent actors before, during and after elections.”

The IPCR however, commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over its role in the conduct of elections so far.

Ondo Governorship Election: IPCR Calls For Violence-Free Election