2015 Polls: Elections will be terrible if care is not taken – Yero
2015 Polls: Elections will be terrible if care is not taken – Yero
By Alex Uangbaoje
Kaduna state Governor DR. Mukhatar Ramalan Yero has observed that, if appropriate measures are not taken, we will have terrible elections violence in 2015.
The governor disclosed this while speaking as chief host at a one day workshop on election reporting with theme: Media Role In Making 2015 General Election violence – free organized by the Kaduna state NUJ council in Kaduna. Governor Yero who was represented by his Chief of Staff Alh. Yahaya Aminu “now as we approached 2015 general elections, we have lives lost and properties been destroyed in the state, we have to avoid it and I believe this gathering is one of the steps in ensuring that we have violence free- elections in the country and the state in particular.”
He accused some politicians of sponsoring drug addicts on the station Radio programme to rain abuses on a particular candidates, noting that, elections is the matter of right. He then commended the organizers for organizing the occasion and urged them to maintain the tempo.
In his remarks, the National president of NUJ Mal. Muhammad Garba expressed disappointment over the unprofessional conduct of some journalist in the country, saying that, “ I must confessed that, we have seen a quite number of professional misconduct especially in the placement of advertisement by some Nigerian newspapers at their front pages, which is unethical, and this is part of what is causing hate speech in the polity.
“ NUJ at national level has witnessed series of assault meted on some journalists, and we are appealing to the security men to provides security to journalist while covering the 2015 elections.” Garba said.
He also implored media chiefs in the country to ensure that they insured their reporters, saying that, “ I am happy that, quite number of media chiefs have responded.
While commending, INEC for a laudable job, Garba said, with the introduction of the card readers it would be impossible to rig the 2015 general elections, which he believed led to cases of violence during the 2011 general elections.
Mal. Muhammad Haruna, the chairman Arewa Media Forum in his paper presentation title “ Role of Journalists in Sustaining Peace before, during and after General Elections, observed that the emergence of social media in Nigeria has posed a great danger in the journalism practice. He urged professional journalist to always be objective and accurate In their reportage as well as imbibe the culture of writing skills. He charged journalists to strictly adhere to the journalism code of conduct, in order to have peaceful, free and fair elections.
Haruna then averred that there is nothing wrong for voters to wait at the polling units after casting their votes in as much as they would not cause any violence at the polling units.
Speaking at the occasion , the Kaduna Residence commissioner INEC, Alh. Hussaini Saidu stated that, the commission has registered 3414250 voters in the state and 3382186 PVC’s were adjusted.
The commissioner who was represented by Haj Rakiyya Imam added, the commission has issued 3145037 PVC’s in the state while number of current PVC’s is 237149.
He then concluded that 92.99 percent PVC’s have been distributed in the state.
welcoming participants, the chairman Kaduna NUJ Council Comrade Yusuf Idris said “today’s activity mark another milestone in the effort of the present leadership of our union at the national level towards ensuring that practitioners’ of this noble profession are abreast with modern global practice as far as journalism is concerned and it is in the light of this effort that at the state council level, we decided to follow the trend as a way of giving our contribution to ensure that the trend is encouraged and maintained.” He stated, the capacity building workshop was meant to train one hundred reporters’ on the methods and techniques of covering and reporting elections, saying that, the aim was to make them more effective and efficient in the performance of their duties in terms of coverage of the 2015 general elections.
