No fewer than 25 Coalition of Civil Society Organisations have called on security agencies to caution political parties against activities that could plunge states into serious crisis, ahead of the off-season governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi.
The Civil Society Organisations, in a communique issued after a three-day election preview on the three states, specifically singled out the Social Democratic Party’s slant of activities in Kogi as an example of what security agencies must caution stakeholders against.
According to them, the wild allegations and ethnic profiling which have become the hallmark of the SDP’s campaign in Kogi State, “are capable of compromising the peace and security of the electorate, officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, election observers and other candidates in the State.”
The CSOs said they came to this conclusion after painstakingly monitoring campaign strategies of various political parties participating in the November 11 gubernatorial elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo.
They pointed out that it was necessary to nip these activities in the bud to forestall possible security breaches and utterances that may provoke ethnic disaffection and electoral violence during the off-season polls.
The communique was signed by the Director of Research and Data Analysis of the coalition, Dr. Jaiyeola Isiaka, and jointly presented to the media, in Abuja on Thursday.
“The State’s Police Commissioner recently had reason to caution the same SDP candidate as published by many media platforms not to drag him into the politics of the wild allegations he has been making which have the potential to overheat the state prior to the election,” the coalition said.
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