The Coalition of Concerned Nigerians, CCN, on Tuesday in Lagos during a town hall meeting appealed to Nigerians to ensure violence-free elections.
The town hall meeting had several members of the Oodua Peoples Congress, students, market men and women, artisans, Nollywood actors, among others in attendance.
The OPC leader and Convener of the Coalition of Concerned Nigerians, Comrade Gani Adams, during a speech urged Nigerians to shun any form of violence, saying the country belongs to all.
Adams said the people must be wary of those who may want to use the elections to seize power, adding that the forthcoming elections must not split Nigeria.
Speaking on National Conference vis-à-vis its impact on Nigerians, Adams lamented that some mischievous people were against CCN’s position on it implementation.
Adams, however, assured that “President Goodluck Jonathan can be trusted for his singular act of keeping to his promise. This is one of the reasons he deserves the support of Yorubas and Nigerians entirely”
According to him, full implementation of the resolution by the Federal Government, will mark a new dawn in Nigeria where true federalism, principles and practice will prevail and guide the principles of state.
His words: “We would now have a Nigeria where every individual and state in Nigeria will be bequeathed with the power of autonomy and every state will develop at its own pace.
“The beauty of the Resolution and its implementation is that each zone of the federation shall have equal number of states with equal number of states with the creation of additional three states per zone, while the south east zone shall have four additional states.
“Like we had it in the first republic, the nation’s mineral resources would enable the states to develop at their own pace and explore whatever mineral resources that are found in their locality.
“And perhaps, the most interesting aspect, the creation of state police, which we have all been agitating for all this while will become a reality for better policing of our dear nation.”
The CCN leader also used the opportunity to clear the air on some misconceptions about last Monday’s protest held by the OPC.
“For a protest, which involved top Nollywood stars, members of several civil society groups and OPC members, numbering between 250, 000 and 300,000 to have lasted without a single incident of violence, is no doubt a huge credit to our maturity and sincerity of purpose.
“Shocking enough, they want us to believe that the protest, which in actual fact can be call a road show because we simply had fun trekking from the old toll gate to the National Stadium, was violent.
“But we have investigated the matter and found out that the video shown by a national television station was indeed shot on December 8, 2011, during a protest rally by the Dr. Fredrick Fasehun-led OPC to protest a threat by Boko Haram to attack the west.
“We have the records to prove this. And I dare anybody who has any fact contrary to this to come forward with it. And if indeed the APC has pictures of OPC members destroying their billboards as they claimed, they should give such pictures to the police to investigate.
“But is it not funny that all the photographs of the alleged destruction of their billboards have not been able to capture the face of the supposed OPC members?,” he quipped.
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