About 109 persons have been killed in political violence recorded from the start of the year to 10 March 2023, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) disclosed on Friday.
According to the Nigeria Election Violence Tracker of the CDD, states that will hold gubernatorial polls with the most incidents of political violence since 1 January 2023 are Lagos, Rivers, Kano, Delta and Anambra – with Kano the state with the most recorded deaths as a consequence at 20.
The Chair of the CDD Election Analysis Centre (EAC), Adele Jinadu and CDD director, Idayat Hassan made this known at a briefing during the opening of the EAC in Abuja.
“Osun, Imo and Ebonyi have also seen a number of incidents in the past three months that could disrupt state house of assembly polls taking place in the state. In total, 109 deaths linked to political violence have been recorded from the start of the year to 10 March 2023 according to the tracker,” they said.
As voters head to the polls to elect governors in 28 states and State House of Assembly members in 36 states, CDD predicted that violence linked to the states elections could worsen due to the activities of armed groups quasi-security outfits.
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“Groups such as Yan Sakai, the Civilian Joint Task Force, Neighbourhood Watch, Amotekun and Ebubeagu have been, and can be, armed and deployed by state governors and their allies to perpetrate electoral violence or suppress voter turnout, particular in areas of strong opposition support,” Idayat said.
“Apart from these outfits, CDD noted the presence of the more conventional political thugs, paid to disrupt polls or intimidate political opponents, as a threat to these elections. The insecurity they create itself portends dangers for the ability to conduct credible elections, increases the likelihood of inconclusive results and, ultimately, the need for supplementary elections. Bauchi, Kano, Rivers, and Sokoto all faced this scenario in 2019, with a high risk of repeat in 2023,” she further said.
The pro-democracy think tank, also tasked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to learn key lessons from its conduct of the presidential poll of February 25 to improve the conduct of the state elections.
CDD stated that given that the polls have been delayed a week, to give INEC time to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices, the Commission now has sufficient time conduct better elections, which will be devoid of the earlier noticed flaws.
The think thank stressed that the functionality of the BVAS machines and improved use of the INEC results viewing platform (IReV) will also be critical for the credibility of the polls.
To ensure the breaches, which occurred during the presidential polls do not happen again, CDD also tasked INEC to reprimand and suspend those found to be colluding with political actors in their state, and support polling unit cancellations in such instances.
CDD urged INEC to avoid elongated periods of silence as this provides fuel for misinformation and disinformation to flourish.
While noting that there will be new governors in 17 states, regardless of the outcome of the polls due to term-limited incumbents who are ineligible to stand, the think-tank however, stressed that such keen contests are likely to be sites for election-violence. The group listed ways violence could manifest to include voter intimidation, ballot box snatching and the destruction of election materials.
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