The Network for Peace Journalists and Community Initiatives to Promote Peace (CIPP), with coordination from the Interfaith Mediation Centre (IMC) Kaduna, have called for peaceful, credible, and transparent elections in the country ahead of Saturday’s general elections.
This is contained in a statement signed by Ibrahima Yakubu, the group’s Team Leader, and made available to journalists on Friday in Kaduna.
Yakubu thanked media organisations across the country for their outstanding contributions to improving peace journalism and promoting Nigerian unity.
He urged Nigerians both at home and abroad to vote in large numbers to elect new committed and dedicated leaders for the country.
Yakubu equally asked Nigerians to vote for competence and credible leaders that had the love of the people at heart.
He said the organisation had since last year, lunched “Vote-In-Peace Campaigns” across the 36 states of Nigeria, saying, “the aim is to sensitise Nigerians about peace, love and tolerance during the campaigns and elections”.
Yakubu appealed to Nigeria Union of journalists (NUJ), the Press Council and the Network for the Protection of World Journalists to upscale their efforts towards protecting journalists and their safety during elections.
He also stressed the need for media organisations to provide kits and other necessary equipment to journalists that would monitor rural and urban centres, while covering the 2023 general elections.
Yakubu emphasised the need for non-governmental organisations and civil society organisations to sensitise the general public through the media on the dangers associated with hate speech, vote buying and thuggery among youth groups.
He drew the attention of security agencies and other para-military personnel to the need to protect journalists when covering the general elections at the polling centres before, during and after the elections.
He thanked the National Peace Commission, Interfaith Mediation Centre, Global Peace Foundation, NGOs and civil society organisations for their support towards promoting peace and harmony among Nigerians.( NAN)
