By Joseph Edeh
Abuja, – A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Mustapha Audu, has called on the National Assembly to come up with stiffer sanctions to check election violence in the country.
Audu made the call while addressing newsmen to commemorate the fourth anniversary of his father, late former governor of Kogi, Prince Abubakar Audu on Sunday in Abuja.
“The National Assembly should come up with stiffer sanctions to punish those who engage in election violence“he said.
He said that the NationalAssembly should not only come up with stiffer sanctions, but to also ensure that security agencies arrest and prosecute such offenders.
The politician added that security personnel who compromised when violence was being unleashed on the people, during elections, should be sanctioned accordingly.
Audu said that this would deter would- be electoral offenders from committing the crime.
He urged the media to always put pressure on the political class and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to abide by the electoral Act by exposing their excesses.
Audu described the violence that characterised the Nov. 16 Kogi governorship and senatorial elections as a shame and unnecessary.
“It is a thing of shame for every kogi person tha, we as a people, cannot express our views peacefully during elections.
“We set up a centre to review reports of election violence and what we saw was overwhelming, ‘he said.
Audu called on security agencies to ensure that those who partook in election violence were sanctioned, according to the law, no matter how highly placed in the society.
He also called on the electorate to always hold politicians responsible for their campaign promises and vote against them if they failed to fulfil such promises.
Audu appealed to all members of the party and stakeholders in Kogi to close rank ,irrespective of the differences, to forge ahead.
On programmes lined up for his father`s anniversary, he said that the millennium builders’ plaza in Abuja would be named after his late father.
Audu also said the family would visit children in his village to make some interventios in line with the late Audu`s vision.
He said that the essence of the anniversary was to ensure that his father’s legacies in all aspects of human endeavour live on in spite his death.
Late Audu, the first democratically elected governor of the 28-year-old kogi, died in 2016 during the governorship election in the state in which he sought re-election on the platform of APC.
NAN
