…calls on police, other security agencies arrest unruly persons

By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA- AHEAD of the September 21, 2024 Edo governorship election, an election observer, Transition Monitoring Group, TMG, Tuesday, expressed concerns on pre-election violence and general outcome of the election.

TMG made their concerns known during a press conference, held in Abuja, where the Chairman, TMG, Auwal Rafsanjani, highlighted some of their experiences and findings ahead of the off-circle election.

According to Rafsanjani, with the experiences of the 2023 general elections and the off-cycle elections in Imo, Kogi, and Bayelsa still fresh in the minds of citizens, there is still scepticism regarding the credibility of elections in Nigeria, which he added that unfortunately, this scepticism bothers the conduct of the Independent National Election Commission, INEC, the political parties and their candidates as well as the security agencies and party supporters.

He said TMG is not only interested in observing elections but also interested in seeing how the elections translate to good governance on the heels of previously monitoring the pre-election situations in Edo State.

Meanwhile, he disclosed that TMG’s observers will be retrained close to the Election Day, and will be deployed to observe and report through “a digital on-the-spot reporting tool”, which has been developed by TMG’s ICT team. Also, TMG will establish a Central Data Centre located in Abuja managed by trained Data Clerks to interface with field observers, collate and analyze reports from the field.

He said: “This press conference is coming off the back of very disturbing and worrisome occurrences in Edo as noted from TMG’s Pre-election Environment Situation Observation efforts ahead of the September 21st election.

“These occurrences not only portend danger for the election but also leaves a big question mark on the ability of political parties in Nigeria to conduct its affairs democratically.

“The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) finds it necessary to call the attention of the public and government, especially the critical stakeholders on some of the issues and call for concerted efforts to address these obvious challenges ahead of the election.”

Meanwhile, according to him, some of the issues include: Non-Credible Political Party Primary Election; the party primaries in Edo failed to represent democratic ideals as the party primaries were mere selections of candidates by party bigwigs, hence has imposed wrong candidates on the electorates.

“Incidences of Physical Violence; There have been incidents of political parties’ intolerance and violence including inter/intra-party conflicts ahead of the election, signalling a poor atmosphere for a peaceful election in Edo State.

“Use of political thugs and arms; there have also been reports of the destruction of campaign materials and personal properties by suspected political opponents. The recruitment and deployment of thugs to intimate and harass non-supporters of certain political parties are highly undemocratic and condemnable.

“Violence During Voters’ Card Collection; The process of voters’ cards collection has also been riddled with violence in some centres in Edo. At one of the locations, it was reported that unknown armed thugs were seen harassing, threatening and eventually chasing away prospective voters who had turned out to collect their Permanent Voters Card (PVC). Some of these incidents have been well reported in the national dailies.

“Verbal Attack and Hate speech; It is highly unfortunate that hate speech and verbal attacks during electoral campaigns have become a recurring issue in Nigeria’s elections. That political party campaign period is the highest point to record hate speech and physical abuses shows that political parties in Nigeria have failed to evolve to ideological oriented political parties.

“TMG has observed instances of verbal attack, abuse and hate speech including online posts and comments which are capable of escalating into physical violence and attacks on innocent citizens of Edo State.

“TMG notes that some of these attacks have been carried out by very highly placed politicians in Edo state, with the disposition of such well-placed persons in the political landscape capable of triggering violence in the State.

“Security of lives and properties; There are heightened security concerns particularly in rural areas. Hence Security Agencies are advised to be watchful and make sure that electoral violence and malpractices are curtailed. Attention should be directed to ensure there are no reports of ballot-box snatching on Election Day. However, we frown at the arrest, intimidation, and isolation of members of the opposing political party by the Security Agencies.

“The economic hardship in the country and the tendency for vote trading; We call on the Economic Finance and Crime Commission (EFCC) to deploy adequate monitors/personnel ahead and during the election to deter, arrest and prosecute perpetrators of vote buying and selling.

“TMG urges the voters in Edo to desist from selling their votes as it only enables the entrenchment of bad leaders who have no desire to better the welfare of the people but only to amass wealth from public funds.”

According to the report presented by the TMG boss there is also the danger of voter apathy, and Non-election related violence.