Posted by By Oluseto Olatuyi on
The Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Sunday said violence would scare away credible Nigerians from participating in politics....
The Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Sunday said violence would scare away credible Nigerians from participating in politics.
Tinubu said this at the presidential wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos. He was reacting to the death of a chieftain of the People Democratic Party in the state, Chief Funsho Williams.
The governor was at the airport to receive President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was on his way to his Ota farm in Ogun State.
He said, 'If people matter, why kill to serve the people?. You cannot and should not introduce violence because people will run away from politics.
'If you introduce thuggery and violence, decent, well-educated and highly professional people will run away from politics. Then, it will be left for the mediocre."
He said those who attributed the death of Williams to politics might not be far from the truth.
Tinubu described Williams as a peaceful man that would never thought of violence.
He added, 'I have run campaigns with Funsho. We cut across one another during political campaigns. We never used violent approach. That is what I know of him.
'We ran through three elections. We threw flyers at one another. We had our music boys and we threw music cassette, they threw their flyer into my vehicles and I threw back to their vehicles."
Meanwhile, the Rivers State Governor, Dr. Peter Odili, who was also at the airport to receive Obasanjo, called on the government to bring the killers to book.
He, however, called on Nigerians to be security-conscious and to offer useful information to the police where necessary.
Odili said, 'It is necessary for all of us to be aware of the danger around us. We have to be conscious of information around us. All the stakeholders should be conscious of all security arrangement around us. From neighbourhood watch to ordinary observers, everybody should be conscious of movement and give information to the police."
He lamented the poor conditions of service of the police, saying that they were not well equipped to protect the citizenry.
The governor advised politicians not to live by false assurance but to properly articulate their policies and not subvert the roles of the electorate.