Women groups of the All Progressives Congress and Labour Party in Ekiti State have vowed to protect their votes during the March 28 presidential poll in spite of “vote and go home order” of the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Suleiman Abba.
They spoke under the platform of Action Group of the APC on Saturday during an APC Women Summit organised in Ado Ekiti to drum support for the party’s presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) and his running mate, Prof. Yemi Osibajo (SAN).
The summit was attended by the LP women and supporters of a member representing Ekiti Central Federal Constituency 1, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele.
A Labour Party Chieftain, Chief Remi Oguntuase, said Nigerians were tired of the Peoples Democratic Party’s 16 years of misrule, saying Buhari/Osinbajo would usher in a new lease of life that would turn around the fortunes of the country.
Speaking on behalf of the women, former Commissioners under Kayode Fayemi-led government, Mrs. Ronke Okunsanya and Mrs. Bunmi Dipo-Salami , as well as the APC Women leader, Mrs. Modupe Ogundipe, reiterated the commitment of the women to stand against any form of rigging during the poll.
Delivering a paper at the summit, the Executive Director, Women Advocate Research and Documentation Centre, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, said there was no law in the land that barred the electorate from standing–by and protect their votes.
She lamented that election rigging had always been the cause of violence in the country since 1922.
The Human Rights Activist urged the women to become advocates of peace and ensure that they go out massively to exercise their civic rights during next Saturday’s election.
She said, “Women have been known to be great mobilisers and advocates of peace. We must come out in this election. We have gone through the period of collection of PVCs and the next time is the period of mandate protection.
“The 1959, 64, 65, 79,83 and up to 2007, elections were largely flawed and riddled with violence because of rigging. But the 2011 elections were better because Nigerians voted and protected their votes.
“We should do everything possible to stand against poll riggers or voting for those that will ruin our future. That is why we should not only vote, but we should vote right.
“If you think what Nigeria is passing through is not good, the only tool that we can use is our votes. It is our votes that can bring regular power supply, affordable and qualitative education and what can show that Nigeria belongs to all of us.”
The Gender Activist lamented that parents of over 200 girls that were abducted by Boko Haram Insurgents in Chibok, Borno State last year April had yet to recover from the trauma, saying this was enough to ensure the elections were free, fair and credible.
Expressing regret that some politicians had turned elections into a warfare, Akiyode-Afolabi, said it was rather disgraceful that Nigerians were relocating abroad just because of elections, which he said ought to be a civil matter.
