Voting Right Movement (VRM) has condemned, in strongest terms, the recent call by the wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, Mrs. Patience Faka Jonathan, that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faithful should stone anybody that shouts “change”.
She was speaking at a campaign rally in Ikom, Cross River State, by the PDP women in the state recently.
VRM is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that is totally and passionately committed to the protection of the integrity of the electoral process in the country.
In a press statement signed by founder/national coordinator of the group, Florence Ozor; head of operations, Daniel Olatunde; and two others, VRM faulted the speech, stressing that it was “outrageous, mindboggling and unbecoming of a woman of such exalt”.
The statement added: “It is worthy to note that ‘change’ is the slogan of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC). We make bold to say that the speech by Mrs. Patience Jonathan amounts to an instigation and inciting supporters of the PDP to attack those of the APC.
“It is completely unbecoming of Mrs. Jonathan to make such a hate speech that is calculated to arouse passion and cause violence. There is absolutely no need to resort to the use of such intemperate language that is capable of causing a breakdown of law and order by Mrs. Jonathan, who, as a woman and the first lady of the country, should be in the vanguard of the crusade for a peaceful election.”
The group has, as a result, called for restraint among politicians in the country on the use of language that is capable of being misinterpreted by their supporters and used as a plank to unleash violence on those who belong to the other side of the political divide. It cautioned that the use of such hate speech is prohibited by the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) and is therefore a criminal offence.
VRM expressed its displeasure and a huge disappointment that neither the presidency nor the PDP has deemed it prudent to dissociate themselves from the inflammatory speech of Mrs. Jonathan, adding that such studied silence obviously sends wrong signals of acquiescence or support of the radical approach of Mrs. Jonathan that those on the other side of the political divide deserve nothing but death by stoning.
