The British Government, on Friday, demanded a peaceful conduct of the forthcoming governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states, urging all the actors to eschew violence.
British High Commission in Nigeria made the position of its home government known while pledging to cooperate with the Independent National Electoral Commission to strengthen Nigeria’s democracy.
The Mission said in a tweet, “As @INECnigeria begins processes for Edo & Ondo governorship elections, we urge all political parties & actors to embrace non-violence from primaries to elections proper. Ahead of #NigeriaDemocracyDay, @UKinNigeria remains committed to working with INEC to strengthen Nigeria’s democracy.”
The governorship polls in Edo and Ondo states have been scheduled to hold on September 19 and October 10, 2020, respectively.
The ruling All Progressives Congress, the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party and other political parties in both Edo and Ondo are set for their individual primaries.
Already, INEC has said it was prepared to conduct the polls as scheduled as it had designed guidelines for environmentally safe polls amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In addition to the Edo and Ondo governorship polls, the Commission will be 10 other elections this year, which include five Senatorial and four State Assembly bye-elections in nine states of the federation.