Stakeholders advocate violence-free Lagos LG Poll

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

Stakeholders in Lagos have called on politicians and others to eschew violence during the forthcoming July 22 local government election in the state.

The stakeholders spoke at the weekend during the annual lecture of A+Vanguard held in Mushin area of Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.

Dr. Ferdinald Ottoh, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, in his paper, titled: “Towards Violence-free Election on Lagos: A Postmortem of June 12, 1993 Election,” said key actors in political system must come together to ensure that all forms of electoral violence during the coming poll in Lagos was averted.

To enhance free and fair election, he said media houses owned by state government must balance their reports of event, adding that private media outlets must also do the same.

Ottoh charged the Lagos Independent Electoral Commission, LASIEC and the police to ensure that the electoral code of conduct was applied for any political party that ferment trouble before, during and after the election.

According to him, if violence must be prevented, the state electoral body must ensure that results of the election were released at least 24 hours after the poll, while the government must be ready to deal with perpetrators of violence during the poll.

Speaking, a member of the House of Representatives, representing Mushin II Federal Constituency, Bolaji Yusuf advised Lagos residents to eschew violence at the forthcoming LG election.

He warned that violence would take the state to nowhere, while appealing for calm.

Coordinator, A+Vanguard, Oyeyemi Ayoola said the topic of the lecture was apt as the state was moving closer to the council election this month, adding that “we can also recollect that the last APC primaries conducted to select chairmen/vice chairmen and councillors were almost marred with violence.”

Former lawmaker, Senator Ganiu Solomon called on party members to shun all forms of violence, embrace peace and work for the interest of the APC.