From Chuks Onuoha
A former youth leader and one of the founding supporters of the creation of Anambra state, Chief Franklin Okoye has joined other good spirited Nigerians to appeal to the Federal Government to suspend the Anambra Governorship election, scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday, November 6, 2021, if they cannot bring the incidences killing in the state under control.
Okoye, an indigene of Anambra state decried lack of peace in the state , adding that election is meant for the benefit of the living and not to kill those for whom the election is organized for .
“There will be a lots of grumbling from the electorate, most of who will not want to come out to fulfill their voting rights due to fear of the unknown. And if the result is released, people will not accept it because it will be lope-sided as many people will not participate fully like past elections”, he explained.
He advised that if F.G. want people to participate fully for it to be seen as a free and fair election, they should listen to the yearnings of the people, suspending the polls until the situation in the state is brought under control.
“The sight of gun-toting soldiers and other security operatives all over the place will even discourage those who value their lives to stay indoors, because you don’t know how you can behave to incur the wroth of the soldiers, and you can be easily tagged somebody operating contrary to the law of the land and dealt with mercilessly. What we have here is already a war time situation and citizens have to be very careful,” he advised.
He said that since blood is already flowing in the state, it will not be proper for the Federal Government to insist that the election must hold now by bringing the whole Nigerian army into Anambra state. Their sight alone is enough to scare people from coming out to vote
He tasks Government should find out the reasons why these killings are going on and approach it diplomatically.
He said that the Iraq war was stopped through dialogue and “I think that dialogue is the easiest means of handling crises that wastes human lives.
He said that killing has become the lot of Anambra state at a time like this, and that serious efforts should be put in place to bring the situation under control. END
