Ahead of the upcoming February and March elections in the country, youths activists in Bauchi state have appealed to police personnel to respond rapidly to distress calls by voters, election officials and observers in areas of troubles.
Bauchi State Coordinator of ‘Vote Not Fight Campaign’ Comrade Muhammad Auwal Adamu made the appeal yesterday when he led other activists to courtesy visits to the state police headquarters and INEC secretariat as part of their campaign for violence free polls.
Adamu charged the police to be fair to all political parties in the discharge of their responsibilities during the elections and prosecute electoral offenders including political actors without immunity.
The activist also charged the police to train their officers to be civil and allow every voter to exercise his constitutional rights without any form of intimidation or restriction during the exercise.
” The Vote Not Fight, election no be war campaign is a non-partisan and youth focussed voter education campaign that has been promoting constructive youth participation in Nigeria’s political and electoral processes since the 2015 general elections. The campaign seeks to increase youth voter turnout and mobilize against hate speech, electoral violence and vote buying “. He said.
Responding on behalf of the state Commissioner of police, the police public relations officer DSP Kamal Datti Abubakar commended the youths for the gesture and said that the command is committed to ensuring peaceful elections in the state.
He said the February 16 and March 2nd offers opportunity for Nigerians to decide their representatives at various levels of government urging electorate to shun violence through out the election period.
While at INEC office, the youth activists charged election officials to be professional and neutral as well as display openness and transparency in all elections activities.
