Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Ahead of the forthcoming general elections, the Commissioner of Police, Kaduna State command, Ahmad Abdurrahman, has said that politicians in the state will soon be asked to sign a peace accord in his office as one of the measures to ensure peaceful conduct of the polls.
CP Abdurrahman said so far, his command had engaged other stakeholders at the community level to make sure that they played the political game by the rules.
In an interview in his office, the police boss also said every eligible voter has the rights to exercise his or her franchise, adding that such rights should be carried out without any form of violence.
He disclosed that royal fathers, market women, labour leaders as well as youth leaders across the state had been sensitised on the need to talk to their followers to stay out of trouble before, during and after the elections.
He explained that “the final one will be the engagement of politicians themselves, especially the candidates, leadership of the political parties and the membership.
“Therefore, the next meeting is the signing of a peace accord between the political parties and the political players. And I can assure you that we will provide a level-playing ground for everybody to exercise their franchise for any political party of their choice.
“Our contingent plan for the peaceful conduct of the forthcoming general election has always been that we go through our community policy, what we call community engagement, we went to the communities in advance of politicking and the campaigns.
“We told the people in the communities the need to allow eligible voters to exercise their franchise because that is their own rights; and when you have this magnitude of rights, you don’t allow anybody to defranchise you because government is being chosen by the people.
“So, if they allow themselves not to exercise their rights, definitely they will be ruled by the people they did not elect. So, I think we have a very good understanding with the stakeholders we have been meeting, especially the youths who are the vanguard of politicking.
“We have also engaged the traditional institution, the women society, including the market women; we engaged lecturers and students.
“We also brought the royal fathers and youth leaders, including the labour leaders like NLC, IPMAN, NURTW and so forth to discuss the need for everybody to go and exercise his or her civil rights. And civil rights does not mean participation alone in election, but as well as to ensure that peace is in place to allow people to exercise their franchise and allow the process of election result to work to determine the winner without any form of violence.”