NYCN Urges Youths To Shun Political Violence

WITH growing political tension occasioned by the forthcoming general election and its postponement, thousands of youths Saturday in Edo State marched through major streets in the state capital with an appeal to teeming youths not to allow themselves to be used by desperate politicians to perpetrate violence in the March 28, 2015 elections.

    Operating under the aegis of National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), they said the march became imperative to create awareness among young people, who they said were prone to being used for political violence.  

   Senior Special Assistant to the President on Youth and Students Affairs, Comrade Jude Image, in a message urged the youth to vote for President Jonathan in view of his disposition towards policies and programs aimed at improving the lives of young Nigerians.

   Edo State President, NYCN, Comrade Innocent Ajayi, in an address to youths said they must avoid money bags and political contractors whose stock-in-trade is “use youth to do their unlawful bidding before, during and after the elections.”

   Imagwe noted that under the Jonathan’s administration the country has witnessed transformation in key sectors of the nation’s economy like the transformation in the aviation, agriculture and transportation sector adding also that education has received more attention than any other previous administration.

    In a related development, the Defenders of Democracy Group (DDG) in a statement by its Director General, Ejoor Mukoro alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was blackmailed into agreeing to shift the election but vowed that those behind the plans would not succeed. He described the shift in election date as a coup against Nigerians.

   “The presidency fails to observe that President Jonathan rode to power on the sympathy of the people. Not because the people loved his party, but because people felt for him, saw in him, the face of hope… but today having squandered his fortune and Nigeria’s good will, he is trying to force his party down the throat of everybody in the country. But Mr. President must realise, that for Nigerians, it is not a party affair, it is not a matter of PDP or APC, but, the country seems to see in another the face of change, the face of hope, reconstruction and rejuvenation.

   “It is not a matter of certificate, or party, the Nigerian people feel betrayed by his broken promise on power, the Nigerian people feel betrayed by his dubious extortion of N100 for every litre of kerosine, the poor manages to buy.