ABUJA – The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), a CSO, on Sunday cautioned political parties and their candidates against using abusive language during campaigns.
Ms Idayat Hassan, Executive Director of the organisation, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
Hassan also stressed the need for politicians to desist from using thugs in their campaigns to ensure peace before, during and after elections.
According to her, the Electoral Act 2010, provides no political campaign or slogan should be tainted with abusive language directly or indirectly. [eap_ad_1] She said that Section 95 (2) of the Act stipulated that intemperate languages likely to provoke violent reaction or emotions should not be used in political campaigns.
“Section 96 (1) provides; no candidate, person or group of persons shall directly or indirectly threaten any person with the use of force or violence during campaign,’’ she said.
The executive director admonished politicians to be law abiding to prevent breakdown of law and order as the preparations for the 2015 elections gather momentum.
Besides, Hassan advised politicians to engage citizens on issue based campaign such as building strong democratic institutions, job creation and education, rather than resort to violence.
Similarly, she called on the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to commence monitoring and documentation of infractions of the Electoral Act to recommend appropriate sanctions.
The director advised the commission to ensure regular deployment of its personnel to monitor the conduct of aspirants and political parties during election period. (NAN)
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