A Non governmental organization, Mercy Corp Nigeria under its Community Initiative to Promote Peace, CIPP has expressed determination to support communities through stakeholders engagements with a view to preventing electoral violence for enhanced growth and development of the Country as the general election draws near.
The Conflict Programmes Specialist of Mercy Corp, Mr. Emmanuel Shall stated this during the one-day stakeholder’s engagement on election violence prevention in Kajuru Local Government area, Kaduna State.
He said sequel to previous engagements with the CIPP structures, it was discovered that, one of the key conflict drivers in Kajuru Local Government had been elections, hence the need to bring together various youths group regardless of their party affiliations for them to be enlighten on how to mitigate issues of electoral violence before, during and after elections.
The Conflict Specialist said Mercy Corp Nigeria would continue to support and empower them with necessary skills as they come up with initiatives and strategies on how to prevent and mitigate electoral violence during the electioneering period.
Emmanuel Shall tasked the representatives of the key political parties who signed peace agreement during the program to ensure periodic round table meetings where early warning signs would be identified and responded to appropriately before they become violent.
The Youth leader of the local Government, Mr. Jonathan Peter pointed out that the program which was targeted at educating the youths on the dangers of electoral violence for them to effectively manage conflict situations during elections, regretted that they have always been the major perpetrators of violence during elections, and yet were at the receiving end.
The volunteer, under the CIPP project expressed satisfaction that the program brought together representatives of different Political parties, also provided a platform for them to be harmonized and take decision as one body for the purpose of peaceful co-existence among all the political parties including social media influencers.
The Chief Mobilization Officer of National Orientation Agency, NOA in Kajuru Local Government, Mrs. Vesty Beruwa described the program as timely, and called for more youths engagement to promote peace, noting that, the agency would continue to collaborate with such organizations toward ensuring effective grassroot mobilization that would promote free, fair and credible elections in the area and beyond come next month.
She called on electorates to conduct themselves peacefully and respect the choice of others toward guaranteeing credible elections which she said was key to the growth and development of the local government and the state in general.
There were goodwill messages from the local government Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Kajere, the representative of Labour Party, Mr. George Yakubu, APC media, Mr. Goodwin Alems, as well as the representative of PDP in Kajuru Local Government, Mr. Isa Namaro who pledged to ensure peaceful co-existence during and after the exercise in the area.
Daniel Karlmax
