Mr Ben Obi, Special Adviser to the President on Inter-Party Affairs, has stressed the need for the conduct of free, fair and acceptable governorship election in Osun.
He made the call on Thursday in Osogbo at a sensitisation workshop for officials of political parties contesting the poll.
The workshop was organised by the office of the Special Adviser to the Presidency on Inter- Party Affairs.
Obi said: “Party followers should be enlightened to understand and accept that two people cannot occupy a position meant for one person.
“All well-meaning Nigerians should be concerned when the electoral environment is over heated by provocative language.
“This does not augur well for contestants, the electorate as well as the political and electoral systems.’’
The special adviser reminded political parties of the need to ensure compliance with the revised political parties’ code of conduct they signed.
“Most of our political parties have negated a lot of their inviolable duties and concentrated mainly on elections and attaining political power at the expense of entrenching democracy,” he pointed out.
He attributed the cause of political crises in the country to intra party wrangling, and appealed to politicians to put the interest of the nation first.
The chairman of the occasion, retired Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, charged all stakeholders to give the growth and stability of democracy the necessary attention.
He stressed the need for political parties and stakeholders to make the indivisibility and peaceful co-existence of the country a priority.
“A country cannot be truly democratic until its citizens have the opportunity to choose their representatives through transparent elections,” he added.
Sen. Sunday Fajinmi, the Alliance for Democracy gubernatorial candidate, said that the only way to make political contests less violent was to make political offices less financially attractive.
Mr Adejare Bello, the PDP deputy governorship candidate, urged politicians to refrain from beating the drum of violence. (NAN)
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