By Ozioruva Aliu

Otaru of Igarra and Akuku Clan, in Akoko-Edo LGA of Edo State, HRH Oba Adeche Saiki II, has called on politicians to ensure they base their campaigns on issues and avoid personal attacks.

Oba Saiki stated this during the Igarra annual Ubete festival, also known as Igarra Day.

The festival marks the day the land was handed over to the Igarra people by the Anafuas, the original inhabitants of the land in the 14th Century. This year’s Day coincided with the day the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, lifted the embargo on campaigning for the September 21 governorship election in Edo State.

Speaking on peaceful campaigns, the monarch said: “My advice to politicians will be that they should market the candidate they want the people to vote for. There should be no quarrel of any kind because it is a call to duty. In campaigning for somebody to be elected, there should be no reason for them to abuse themselves, they should sell their people and their candidates. They should not destroy people’s image, they should campaign on issues and tell the people what the candidate can do for the people if he or she wins. All the people want is somebody who can make life better for them so they should tell the people what they want to do for them, that is the essence of election and leadership.

“There are some politicians and party members who will leave the issues and begin to run down their opponents and even insult each other and in some cases they go violent. This time around, I advise them against such. Being elected is a call to serve the people, so violence must be avoided.”

At the Ubete festival, he said: “Ubete is the Igarra Day. That was the day the soil of Igarra symbolizing the entire Igarra land was handed over to Ariwo Ovejijo by the aborigines who were called Anafua. Yearly, we celebrate it and every Igarra indigene wherever he or she is, is expected to mark it because that was the day the Igarra land was handed to Ariwo Ovejijo, the man who led us to where we are today at about the 14th Century as the first Otaru of Igarra.

“On Igarra Day, it is forbidden for any Igarra indigene to see a hoe and any other farm implement and if anybody defaults, there is a way we appease the land,” he said.