Group urges authorities to investigate cases of electoral violent acts

A transparency organization, Connected Development (CODE) on Thursday, urged appropriate authorities to investigate all allegations of violence and cases of violent acts, during the Presidential and National Assembly Elections, in accordance with the rule of law and bring perpetrators to justice.

Mr Hamzat Lawal, Head of Mission, CODE Election Observation Team, made the call while presenting the Final Report on the Presidential and National Assembly Elections and the Way Forward in Abuja on Thursday.

“CODE strongly condemns election-based violence which resulted in the burning of thumb-printed ballot papers in Isolo Local Government Area in Lagos and the killing of a young voter at a polling unit in Dekina Local Government Area in Kogi; death of two persons in Nembe, Bayelsa; the death of 16 people in Rivers and injuries of citizens.

Lawal alleged that INEC failed to ensure that there was no violence despite the week-long postponement of the elections that was supposed to allow for adequate logistics and security readiness.

The head of mission said security remained a prevalent challenge confronting the nation’s growth, adding that the electorate did not have to die at the cost of participating in the electoral process.

Lawal said that the Uzabe, a real-time technology for intelligence gathering and election monitoring, provided emergency incidents reports to security agents through its situation room.

He said that the technology also helped to minimise violence at polling units.

The team leader said that the Uzabe received more than 3,887 reports from on-the-ground observers and “online social sentiment analysts”.

“From these reports, Uzabe established about 453 election incidents across 34 states in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

He, however, said that there were also reports of security agents restoring peace in areas where political thugs tried to incite violence.

Lawal urged security agents to do better at protecting the lives and property of the electorate, and at ensuring that no lives are lost during the electoral process.

“We cannot keep addressing issues of electoral violence except adequately prepare for these contingencies,” he said.

The head of mission, however, commended INEC for allowing the will of the people to be heard and remaining firm on its duty “regardless of pressure from political actors who wanted to truncate the electoral process”.

He urged Nigerians to support INEC and also come out en masse to vote their candidate of choice in the gubernatorial elections on March 9.

Lawal further recommended that INEC’s complete autonomy be strengthened to ensure it provided more effective and objective electoral process and develop result-management process using competent and secure technology.

He recommended that INEC curb the issue of underage voting to ensure the election process is credible and to introduce reforms to allow Nigerians in the Diaspora to vote.