As the forthcoming general elections draw nearer,an appeal has gone to political parties and candidates for various elective offices to eschew bitterness in the processes of seeking for votes in order to ensure the ceaseless maintenance of the characteristic tranquility of Ilorin Emirate and its environs.
This appeal was made by the National President of Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union(IEDPU), Alhaji Aliyu Otta Uthman,fsi, while reacting to the exchange of firepower between a former Minister of Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi and the Turaki of Ilorin, Mallam Saliu Mustapha, who are candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and the All Progressives Congress(APC), respectively, in the next month election.
Alhaji Uthman,in a statement he personally signed, said that it has followed the exchange of written interactions that were loaded with unfriendly expressions between the two camps with great concerns because of its possibility of being taken beyond the intentions of the two politicians by their supporters and felt the need to appeal to the two gentlemen to allow peace to reign.
The retired intelligence chief described the two gladiators as peace loving and distinguished patriots who ordinarily should and would not want the peace of the people they seek to represent tempered with and therefore appealed for immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the interest of all.
“The issue here is not who is right or who is not but the peace of our community. We do not want anything that would present us to the rest of the world as intolerants and violent”,Alhaji Uthman stated.
He recalled his appeal to all political gladiators at the opening ceremony of its 57th national conference held towards the end of last year where he advised them to pursue their ambitions in a way that the peace and harmony of Ilorin Emirate would not be threatened.
He added that if the two gladiators appreciated what is going on as mere exchange of political conversations their supporters and sympathisers may not see it as such and may be goaded to go into violence.
The Union said that the Ilorin Emirate Peace Committee it constituted with the approval of the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji(Dr) Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari,CFR, and under the Chairmanship of a retired Chief Justice of Nigeria, Honourable Justice Alfa Belgore, GCON, would soon begin its work with a view to ensuring that peace and harmony prevail before, during and after the general elections scheduled for next month.
He also reminded the concerned leaders of the enduring and subsisting appeal of the Emir and hope that they would accept the fact that enough is enough.
