PORT-HARCOURT – Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, Chairman National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), has said that there is no alternative to civil and democratic politics.
Odinkalu made this known in Port Harcourt on Monday at the commission’s official visit to investigate avoidable political violence in Rivers.
“We want to hear from the campaign organisations, do we have evidence of names of the people who are alleged to have been killed.
“Do we have a documentation of the incident, can we get a sense of the political geography of what is happening,’’ he said.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]
He said the commission’s role was not to take sides but if it must take side, it must be on the side of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
According to him, if we don’t have a country that exists, if we don’t have a stable country, we cannot do politics, public service and we cannot think of improving on our lives.
“This is part of a process of preparation to head-off any worse than what we have gotten and see how we can pull ourselves back to a place of civility in politics to at least minimise and mitigate violence.
Odinkalu said the NHRC would meet and have heart-to-heart talk with security agencies to understand their challenges and how they could be addressed.
He urged politicians to play politics with civility while security agencies should rise up to the challenges of the society.
Earlier, Dr Dakuku Peterside, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers, said his party had suffered several attacks in the state from opponents.
He said in spite 30 lives lost in one local government area of the state, his party was open for dialogue and ready for continuous engagement.
“We still believe in the ability of the security agencies and we will continue to rely on their capability,’’ he said. (NAN)
