18th February, 2023
Shedrack Frank
Fourteen of the 18 registered political parties in Bayelsa signed an agreement at the INEC office in Yenagoa on Friday to conduct themselves peacefully in the coming elections.
Some of the parties that signed the peace pact were Action Alliance (AA), Action Democratic Party (ADP), Action Peoples Party (APP), African Action Congress Party (AAP) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Others were the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Boot Party (BP), National Rescue Movement (NRM), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Young Progressives Party (YPP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
The peace pact was supervised by the Commissioner of Police in Bayelsa, Mr Ben Okolo.
Okolo commended all the political parties in Bayelsa for going about their campaigns peacefully.
He noted that Bayelsa is one of the most peaceful states in Nigeria and urged all political parties not to instigate violence during and after the elections.
Okolo said adequate security arrangements would be provided and all should be law-abiding, during and after the elections.
In his remarks, INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner in Bayelsa, Mr Emmanuel Hart said the Commission has constantly engaged stakeholders to keep them abreast of the progress made preparatory to the elections.
He said INEC had also worked tirelessly to deliver on its Constitutional mandate, guided strictly by the Electoral Act 2022 and its own guidelines.
He noted that INEC needed the cooperation of all stakeholders to conduct free, fair, peaceful, transparent and credible elections acceptable to all.