Nigeria Diaspora Security Forum (NDSF) said it has been monitoring information in Nigeria’s public domain and has advised politicians and officials to refrain from hate messages.The Forum also threatened “to file legal cases against politicians, public figures and religious leaders including pressuring European Union and the United States to place travel restriction and assets freeze on trouble makers… ”
“We are calling on all political contestants and known Nigerian personalities to refrain from heating up the polity with hate messages because we are monitoring information in the public domain and we will not hesitate to file legal cases against politicians, public figures and religious leaders including pressuring European Union and the United States to place travel restriction and assets freeze on trouble makers…”the group said in a statement emailed to Newsdiaryonline.
Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission has also cautioned against hate messages.It expressed its resolve to tackle the menace henceforth.
The Diaspora group in its statement also called on the Federal Government to shut down higher institution for a week after the presidential election “for safety and security reason”
The group said “We are calling on the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Honourable Minister of Education to close all higher educational institutions for one week for the Presidential Election for safety and security reasons. Eligible voters who are students should cast their votes in the constituencies and locales where they are registered.
It also said “ seriously concerned that as much as 24 million eligible voters are yet to collect their Permanent Voters Cards. With just over 68.8 million registered voters, this constitutes about 35% eligible voters that are yet to be issued with voting cards nine days before what many are calling a make or break election for our fragile democracy.
“Whilst NDSF welcomes the extension of the collection date, we are using this medium to encourage INEC and their contractors to do everything possible to ensure that everyone that wants to exercise their constitutional right and civic duty to vote, are empowered to vote.
A statement by Godwin E. Forson, publicity director and Temitope Olodo (Esq) its co-ordinator said “ NDSF is concerned that little is said by INEC about which polling stations would not be operational during the Presidential Election on the 14th of February 2015. There are appropriately 150,000 polling stations across 36 States in Nigeria. And as of today there are over 20 local government areas currently outside the control of the Federal Government of Nigeria due to one form of violent extremism or the other.
“We are worried that the Federal Government of Nigeria is encouraging Higher Education Institutions (HEI) to be left open when there are clear security reports that educational establishments are prime targets for the terrorists during the election period. There are over 350 HEIs in Nigeria, representing over 1.5 million students; we believe this decision will place unnecessary burden on Nigeria’s already overstretched security services to cover all educational establishments.
The Forum also suggested measures in the face of unfolding challenges thus:
“We are calling on INEC to allow Nigerians internally displaced by insurgency attacks to use their temporary voter card to vote in special polling stations or constituencies where they are located presently.
“We are calling on INEC to clearly and regularly communicate updates to Nigerians on the situation regarding the ongoing distribution of outstanding PVCs. This will serve the purpose of reassuring the populace about INEC’s intentions to conduct a free and fair election on the scheduled date of 14th February 2015.
It also called “on all political parties across the spectrum to continue to respect the general wish of Nigerians both home and abroad for a free and fair election.
“Nigeria Diaspora Security Forum (NDSF) is a network of Nigerian professionals based in the diaspora that specialise in security and human right issues.
