By Marie-Therese Nanlong

Jos—The Emir of Wase, Alhaji Sambo Haruna, has accused politicians of pitching the masses against one another and urged the people to understand that such acts were not in their interests.

Haruna, who spoke against the backdrop of unending crises in the area, lamented the incessant burning of villages and sacking of innocent people in his locality and appealed to politicians, irrespective of party and religious affiliations, to join in the ongoing efforts at reconciling the people.

He spoke in his palace, yesterday, while receiving All Progressives Congress, APC, campaign organization led by its governorship candidate, Mr. Simon Lalong.

According to Alhaji Haruna, different villages in the local government had been attacked over 100 times since 1998.

He asked the people of the area to see themselves as members of one family and stop discriminating against one another on the basis of religion or tribal affiliation.

The Emir also advised Nigerians not to sell their voter’s cards, but to use the general elections to vote for credible leaders.

He further called on politicians to put the interest of the nation first during their electioneering campaigns by desisting from acts that could be interpreted to imply desperate manipulation of the electorate for political power as “only God gives power to whoever He please.”

He added: “Now is the time for Nigerians to go beyond the campaign issues and begin to ask why nothing seems to work in Nigeria in the past 16 years of our democracy.”

Earlier, Lalong, the APC candidate, his running mate, Professor Sunny Tyoden and their campaign leaders said they were in the palace to seek the emir’s blessing ahead of the general elections.