Gowon to Jonathan, Buhari: Accept election verdict

Former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon has expressed
fear over what he described as comments from political
leaders and party supporters ahead of this month’s general
elections, admitting discomfort with the trend and dimension
the political campaigns are taking.
General Gowon, who spoke when the National Youth Service
Corps (NYSC) management led by the Director-General, Brig-
General Johnson Olawuni, visited him in Abuja yesterday,z
urged the presidential candidates like President Goodluck
Jonathan and Gen Muhammadu Buhari, of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC)
respectively to accept final verdict from the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC).
His words: “Yes, there are anxieties in the country but we pray
that God will touch the heart and minds of those with negative
intent so that nothing untoward happens. What we want in
Nigeria is to have a peaceful, free and fair election and I
appeal to all Nigerians especially the political parties and the
leadership of those parties to ensure that all their supporters
vote peacefully.
“I appeal to the political leaders to prevail on some of their
extreme supporters and members making extreme statements
that can enrage or trigger trouble. They must ensure a
peaceful election and essentially accept the final result from
INEC who has the only authority to announce the final election
result.
“Let me say that since this election is going to be a secret
voting, every individual has the right to vote who he wants
and I want to urge every Nigerian to vote according to their
conscience and not be intimidated into voting for somebody
you doesn’t want to vote for.
On the deployment of the corps members for electoral duties,
he said: “I have gone round and seen some corps members on
electoral duties and I was impressed that they were doing it
very well. I have always congratulated them and I am also
impressed that the scheme is deploying them for the
forthcoming general elections.”
Earlier, Brig. Olawunmi had explained that the purpose of the
visit was to appeal for his intervention to Nigerians and
political leaders to ensure the security of the corps members
before, during and after the elections.
“The purpose of this visit is about the corps members that
would soon be on electoral duty. NYSC has been part of the
electoral process but precisely in 2011, we were unlucky to
lose some corps members as a result of post-election
violence. Since then, we have gone the extra mile to take
precautionary measures to ensure that such did not repeat in
this country,” he said.