Popular Nigerian pop star, Innocent Idibia, popularly called, 2Baba, stormed Osogbo, the Osun State capital on Tuesday as part of the ongoing campaign to ensure a violence-free governorship election in the state.
The singer joined the State Director of the Department of State Service, Mr. Brown Ekwaba, and the Commandant of the Nigeria Security; Civil Defence Commission, Mr. Ebenezer Aboluwoye and the Chief Executive Officer of Rave FM, Mr. Femi Adefila, to appeal to the youths to shun violence before during and after the election.
The DSS boss warned the youths against engaging in violent activities, saying security agencies would deal with anyone found to be engaged in thuggery.
2Baba, in his own address, charged the youths to stand against all forms of inducement to vote a particular candidate, whose philosophy did not conform with theirs.
He said politicians in the country were always out to use Nigerian youths to perpetrate all sorts of violence during elections, leaving their families in safety at the expense of the potential future leaders.
He said, “Election should not be a do or die affair. Shun violence and be peaceful in carrying out your political activities. Don’t engage in thuggery, shun violence.
“Electoral violence has become commonplace in our country. Politicians don’t care about how many people would get killed, all they want is that power and the set of people they normally use are the youths.
“Why can’t we have an election that would be conducted in a way that after voting, we can all come together to rock to nice music instead of weeping over our murdered friends, families and neighbors?
“The youths must take a position to rewrite the history by saying no to the prompting of our power-greedy politicians to be violent. There may be no plan for the youths because as things stand, we are irrelevant to them. The only thing they want to use the youths for is violence but we must say no.”
The Executive Director of Kimpact Development Initiative, Mr. Bukola Idowu, who is one of the organisers of the programme said the state had come to the climax of political activities as the September 22 governorship election drew near, emphasising the need for all and sundry to participate peacefully.
He said, “We have reached out to political parties and candidates for the forthcoming election in the state to let them know of our message, which is to eradicate violence during elections and I’m happy to tell you that they are supporting us on how violence would be prevented.”
