By Johnson Eyiangho, Abuja

The British government has threatend to sanction politicians and their supporters, who engage in acts of thuggery and violence during the 2023 general elections by denying them visas to visit the United Kingdom (UK).

The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mrs.

She expressed concern over the issues of security and violence as witnessed in the attacks on some political parties in the ongoing campaign rallies across the country.

”We will also be watching closely, any individual who acts violently or incite people through the social media, we do have the possibility of using our visas as sanction by removing peoples rights to visit the UK.

”These apply to all the political parties, not just the parties, but security officials and any body who might be in that position,” Lang said. 

She said the security of the 2023 general elections was important, saying that everything should be done to ”make sure that the election go very well”.

”Number one is security, and we have been really concerned about the recent events; 52 election violence related issues in 22 states including an attack on the PDP convoy in Maiduguri.

”That is a real concern, and we want to exchange our thoughts on what you can do as a political party to ensure that the elections are as peaceful as possible.

”When people feel intimidated, they can’t get out to vote, the election itself will not be credible that is why violence is of great concern,” she said. 

Lang also said another important thing was to get the voters out en mass to exercise their franchise and make the election credible.

”There is also the issue of registration of young voters, that is real positive and we hope that they would turn out to vote on the day of election because it will make the election much more credible,’ she said.

Responding, Mr. Samuel Anyanwu, the PDP National Secretary, expressed confidence that the party will win the Presidential election in 2023 because it has structures on ground in the 36 states and the FCT.

”We believe that with the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) which INEC is able to introduce it is not going to be business as usual. That is why we keep praying for INEC to maintain its promise to Nigerians and when that is done, we will find out that our party is in top gear,” Anyanwu said.

Meanwhile, the PDP has inaugurated its Women Campaign Council.

Speaking at the party’s Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, described women as the most loyal members of the party, adding that would be supported to encourage women participate actively in the democratic process and nation building. 

”When I was Vice-president I travelled to a country in Europe called Sweden. The head of government was a woman Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs was a woman, when I look at my delegation it was all men and I was embarrassed.  

”That the Minister of Finance was a woman, the Minister of Education was a woman, then I committed myself to making sure that as long as I remain in politics I will promote  the advancement of women. 

”Therefore, we had no hesitations whatsoever in between 1999 and 2015 to make sure at the very minimal we complied with the Beijing Declaration. 

”Our main objective of setting up the Women Campaign Council is to make sure of your active participation to be able to identify the talents that are available amongst you, so that we can hunt those talents to help us build this country,” Atiku said.

According to him, there are more attributes that women have that men don’t have is that women are less corrupt. I am challenging the PDP women to provide that leadership by giving your 100% support to the party.