… Condemns Election Violence, Voter Intimidations
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has decried the degree of hate speeches purveyed throughout the National, Governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections in Nigeria, which culminated into profiling of citizens based on ethnic and religious backgrounds leading to targeted attacks and their disenfranchisement.
The Commission observed that the hate speeches before and during the elections were tantamount to abuse and infringement on fundamental human rights of opponents, instigated voters suppression, disenfranchisement and violence which the commission would not let to lie low.
The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Chief Tony Ojukwu, said this Sunday while releasing preliminary statement on the just concluded Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections.
He said the Commission has resolved to invite the two most outstanding purveyors of hate speeches and actions in persons of the Kogi state Governor, Yahaya Bello and the Chairman of the Lagos State Parks Management Committee, Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo, to account for their roles.
OPTIMUM TIMES recall that Yahaya Bello had on the eve of the presidential and National Assembly elections cut off major roads leading to Kogi Central senatorial district, home to opposition senatorial candidate Natasha Akpoti, in an attempt to prevent access to the areas but under guise of preventing terrorists from entering, while MC Oluomo had severally threatened voters, especially citizens from the South East in Lagos to stay away from voting if they would not vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Apart from this, the Commission which deployed 600 staff Human Right Monitors across the 36 states for the Gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections, said the preliminary report highlighted key findings from monitoring over 1300 polling units by its staff and reports and complaints received from Nigerians in its Human Rights Situation Room.
Ojukwu said the Commission during the elections process monitored among others issues relating to the conduct of law enforcement and security personnel, hate speech, election related Sexual and Gender based violence (SGBV) and vote buying.
According to the statement, “The environment before the elections was fraught with tension arising from reports and allegations of threats from different political parties and their supporters concerning the elections. Ethnic division and hate speeches were rife in many states, including Lagos, Enugu, Kano, Kaduna and Rivers.
“In Lagos, Enugu, Ebonyi and a few other states, there were threats of violence on opposition supporters, including the use of traditional institutions, schools and the public service.
The Commission observed that the Governorship and House of Assembly elections witnessed a low voter turnout in states like Niger, Kwara, Benue and Kogi, the turn out was abysmally low and in almost all the south eastern states, low turn out was also recorded. This, the Commission attributed mainly to the hitches and irregularities recorded in the Presidential election and threats of violence prior to the elections.
It said that the overall report from monitors showed that INEC officials and materials arrived relatively early across the country while the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was generally successful.
However, the Commission frowned at INEC officials as Victor Olaiya/Idahosa at Aguda polling unit in Surulere, Lagos, who insisted that results won’t be uploaded at the polling unit based on instructions from INEC.
The Commission condemned double standards such as this, saying that it create an atmosphere of mistrust in the electoral process.
According to the Commission, “Our monitors reported incidents of violence, including cases of assault, vandalism, destruction of election materials and polling units in 16% of the polling units monitored.
“There were reports from Rivers state of hoodlums attacking the INEC officials and stealing the BVAS device and election materials. There were also reported cases of abduction of INEC Officials in Isu LGA of Imo state and attack on INEC officials in Odoakpu Ward 7, Onitsha in Anambra state
“There were also various reports of attacks on polling units from Lagos, Rivers, Nasarawa and Enugu states. In Kano state there was a report of violence in Rogo ward of Sabo Gari Local Government Area that led to the death of one person. The Commission also received reports of disruption of elections in Ogbia Constituency 2 in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa state.
“The Commission received with great concern, the attack on the ARISE News crew at Elegushi Palace. We call on law enforcement to investigate these and other incidents of violence and bring perpetrators to book.”
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