Ike Ekweremadu also assured that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members in the National Assembly would not be intimidated from holding the government accountable.
A statement issued by the Special Adviser on Media to the Deputy Senate President, Uche Anichukwu, said Ekweremadu gave the assurances on Wednesday evening when he received the national, zonal and state Youth Leaders of the PDP in his office.
He said: “Nobody should be deceived that they will rig election in 2019. The international community will also be watching; and like the late Sam Mbakwe said ‘if you are awake, the rat would never take your fish.’ So if we ‘shine’ our eyes, nobody will rig us out.
“I’m sure some of you are now conversant with the misrepresentation of my statement on the floor of the Senate last week where I cautioned against brigandage, impunity and thuggery and I said as leaders and politicians we must do the correct thing before we endanger our democracy. That is what I said.
“Never bother about their propaganda. We will continue to speak the truth. We will continue to defend our democracy and urge our leaders to always do the right thing.
“Sometimes, we may be misunderstood, but we will remain unrelenting. It was the great Nnamdi Azikiwe, who said that the best judge of human conduct is conscience. Keep saying the right thing. The person you are speaking to is hearing you; someday his conscience will prick him and he will do the right thing.
“We will not allow anybody to truncate this democracy because we believe that your own future is here now. Nobody will take his future in the past and come to continue your own future.”
Ekweremadu warned the youths against any form of electoral violence, describing it as “an ill wind that blows no man any good.”
“The days of violence are gone. We have to put on our thinking cap. Do not match any person violence for violence; but match them ideas over violence. It is ideas that rule the world,” he added.