2019: Observer group declares governorship elections worst ever

An assemblage of domestic observers for the 2019 general elections in Nigeria has decried the magnitude of electoral violence and irregularities that pervaded the governorship elections across the country.

The group, Nigeria Election Violence Report (NEVR) in its elementary report noted that the March 9 governorship and house of assembly elections were the worst election in recent times in Nigeria, emphasizing that the level of atrocities committed during the elections was alarming.

Coordinator of the Nigeria Election Violence Report (NEVR), Bukola Idowu, in an interactive forum in Osogbo, Osun State, declared that the preponderance and widespread incidence of vote buying and inducement across southwest Nigeria was disturbing

The group, which monitored elections in the southwest, insisted that the reports it got from its observers were mostly that vote buying was with impunity in states like Ogun, Ekiti, Lagos, Ondo, Oyo, and Osun.

The group suggested that security agencies should investigate the causes of alleged partisanship of some security operatives during the elections.

Idowu expressed concerns over the upsurge of ethnic hostility in Lagos where All Progressives Congress (APC) thugs were unleashed on the Igbo voting population, while APC leaders also threatened the Igbo traders if they do not vote for APC candidates.