The just-concluded elections were largely peaceful in most parts of the country. But in Rivers State, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) suspended collation of results till between today and Friday, following escalated violence. How can Nigeria get security right during elections? ROBERT EGBE asks.
Less than two months to the 20th anniversary of the Fourth Republic on May 29, the country is coming to terms with the aftermath of probably its most competitive elections in recent times.
As things stand, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will control 14 states, All Progressives Congress (APC), 20, and All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) one, by May 29, when newly-elected officials are sworn in.
The winner of the Rivers State governorship poll is not yet known. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) suspended the process there because of violence.
It has said it would conclude the collation of results between today and Friday.
Like in the past, the integrity of the February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections, and the March 9 governorship polls in 29 states, have become the subject of debate.
The losers and the opposition are accusing INEC of compromising the process.
Some politicians, including PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, blamed their loss on electoral malpractices.
Atiku lost to the ruling APC’s Muhammadu Buhari by nearly four million votes.
However, despite initial apprehension caused by INEC’s last-minute postponement of the polls by one week, local and international observers rated the elections as largely successful.
The United States (US) congratulated Nigeria on a successful presidential election.
In a statement titled “Nigerian Election Results”, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo praised “Nigerians who participated peacefully in the election.”
Pompeo added: “We note the assessments of international and domestic observer missions affirming the overall credibility of the election, despite localised violence and irregularities.”
Similarly, the West African Network of Election Observers (WANEO), a coalition of Civil Society Organisations, in its March 28 report, stated: “The elections were generally free and fair across the country although there were a few challenges experienced across the country.
“That there is a need to improve the electoral process further, especially as it relates to the uniform application of the Electoral Act.
“That network welcomes the comments and contributions of other international observers like the ECOWAS teams, European Union and Commonwealth.”
Localised violence
Before the polls, INEC and law enforcement agencies, including the military, assured Nigerians of a violence-free election.
However, like Pompeo noted, there were clusters of cases of electoral violence in some states, including Akwa Ibom, Lagos, Kano, Oyo, among others.
In Adamawa, there were reports that some APC members were attacked by the youth of Nassarawo Jereng at the collation centre for Nassarawo/Binyeri House of Assembly election on March 24.
The rescheduled election was to fill the vacuum created by the death of the APC House of Assembly candidate for Nassarowo/Binyeri constituency two weeks to the general election, which was marred by voter apathy and skirmishes at the collation centre.
However, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Usman Abubakar Tilli, who led the AIG, Adamawa State Commissioner of Police, and other security agents to supervise the polls, said he was satisfied with conduct of the electorate.
In Akwa Ibom, which has a history of violent polls, 18 members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), deployed by INEC as ad hoc staff, were reportedly kidnapped, after which 14 others were later released, leaving four.
In Kano, some stakeholders also claimed that the supplementary governorship election won by the incumbent Abdullahi Ganduje of the APC, was blighted by incidents of violence, voter intimidation and ballot box snatching.
Kano was one of the five states where supplementary governorship elections were conducted, where results from the March 9 initial ballot were declared inconclusive as the margin of victory was less than the cancelled votes.
The other states were: Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Kano, Plateau and Sokoto.
But the state which stands out for its proclivity for heightened political tension and violence is Rivers.
Rivers’ history of electoral violence
Since the return of civil rule in 1999, Rivers has been one of the states with elevated levels of political conflict, particularly for state polls.
A 2015 report by Niger Delta Partnerships Initiative (NDIP), titled “Conflict prevention in Rivers State in the aftermath of election violence” noted that nearly 40 people lost their lives in the 2015 governorship elections in Rivers.
The NDIP, relying on data from INEC and P4P Peace Map, said Rivers “experienced the country’s highest levels of violence during the 2015 governorship elections, resulting in the deaths of political party rivals, their hired security agents and police officers.”
To forestall a recurrence of such violence, INEC and the security agencies took extra precautions in this year’s polls.
The Police, for instance, deployed 15,544 men to Rivers State for the February 16 presidential and national assembly elections.
According to the Commissioner of Police in the state, Usman Belel, it was to beef up security and ensure a smooth conduct of election.
Notwithstanding the increased security, the state still witnessed several acts of violence, including killings at Abonnema, Andoni and Obio/Akpor during the March 9 elections.
In Abonnema, an INEC ad-hoc electoral officer, Ibisaki Amachree, was shot dead.
An ex-official member of the APC, Hon. Ignatius Fubara, was said to have been tied up and beheaded in Ward 8, Ajakaja.
A former Andoni Council Chairman, Emilia Nte, was also allegedly abducted by the same militants. His whereabouts remain unknown.
An APC chieftain, Mowan Etete, was said to be holding a meeting with his elder brother and a nephew on the day of the election when militants stormed his house, killed them and dragged Mowan’s body around the streets of Asarama.
Even the military was not spared.
Two soldiers – Captain Adams Salami and Corporal Adeosun Adebayo – who were among victims of the reported invasion of a collation centre in Obio/Akpor Local Government secretariat, by armed thugs dressed in military uniforms, are still on hospital beds.
Narrating his ordeal, Adebayo accused the Rivers State Government of violence.
He said: “I was deployed in Obio/Akpor LG collation centre and the crowd was too much. So, we had to reduce the crowd.
“It was then that the policemen in the governor’s convoy started mobbing us and hitting us with their weapons. I could not figure out the reason, because nobody asked anybody any question. The policemen were hitting us with the butts of their riffles.”
Three agents of the African Action Congress (AAC), who were affected by the incident – Dr. Lawrence Chuku, Chikordi Dike and Chief Alex Wele – also claimed that the governor led over 200 thugs to abduct and beat them up.
They further claimed that the thugs dropped them off the governor’s vehicle and went with the Local Government Electoral Officer (EO), a woman, the result sheets and other electoral materials.
But the Rivers State Government, through its Commissioner for Information and Communications and Director of Information and Communications of the PDP Campaign Council, Emma Okah, denied the AAC agents’ claims.
Wike, Awara trade blames
At a stakeholders’ meeting oragnised by INEC in Port Harcourt, last Saturday, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike and the state’s governorship candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Biokpomabo Awara, clashed over the violence during the polls.
Awara, an indigene of Kula-Kalabari in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers, accused Wike and INEC of doctoring results of the ‘bloody’ governorship and House of Assembly elections of March 9 in the state.
Awara said: “If the violence made the March 9 elections not to be credible, according to INEC, where did the commission get results for the 17 LGAs, of Rivers’ 23 LGAs in the INEC’s possession? At what point did the elections become violence-free, for the commission to now have results for 17 LGAs? Why has INEC refused to release the results of the 17 LGAs it claimed to have and the remaining six LGAs it wants to do supplementary election?”
Rivers not violent, says Wike
Wike said: “I do not agree that Rivers is a violent state. Rivers State has never and it will not be a violent State. Why are they raising too much alarm? What causes violence? Why is there violence each time there is election? The only way to have peaceful elections is when the security agencies refuse to interfere or manipulate any process.
“How did people die? When INEC would go and collate results and people would resist and when people resist, they will shoot them. Rivers is not a violent state. It is most unfortunate that people would leave their state, come to another state, instead of them to make sure what obtains in their state obtains here, they do not want it, they want to cause problems for us.
“With all due respect, the Garrison Commander (Brig.-Gen. Adeola Kalejaiye) is here. Throughout my political career, of not less than 30 years, I have never experienced the type of roles the army played. We must tell people the simple truth.”
Can election violence be prevented?
In states such as Rivers, is it possible to have violence-free polls?
A 2016 report by the Electoral Integrity Project, an independent academic project based at Harvard University and the University of Sydney, found that many African countries face systemic threats to their elections which regularly compromise the process.
Such threats include: multiple serious technical flaws and violations of political rights, imprisonment of rival leaders, suppression of voting rights and inaccurate electoral registers.
Others are: “Ruling parties dominate the airwaves. Free speech is muzzled. Thugs threaten voters. Campaigns are awash with money. Ballot-stuffing fakes the count. Electoral officials favor the government. Dispute resolution mechanisms are broken.”
The annual report compares the risks of flawed and failed elections, and how far countries around the world meet international standards.
It gathered assessments from over 2000 experts to evaluate the integrity of all 180 national parliamentary and presidential contests held between 1 July 2012 to 31 December 2015 in 139 countries worldwide.
It, however, scored Nigeria an above average 53 out of 100 points in terms of the country’s potential for electoral integrity.
What should be done?
What should be done to make elections safe and credible?
On March 29, Justice Sa’ad Moh’d of the Gombe State High Court convicted a councillor in Bolari East Local Government Area, Gombe, Ishiyaku Garba, of vote-buying.
The judge convicted the councillor on the three counts and sentenced him to one month in prison with an option of N100,000 fine on count one; one month in prison on count two with an option of N50,000 fine and one month in prison on count three with an option of N20,000 fine.
The prison terms are to run consecutively.
The court further ordered that the sum of N295,000 recovered from him should be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Garba was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on three counts bordering on bribery.
The EFCC arrested the convict at Bolari Polling Unit 0077 in Gombe State during the presidential and National Assembly elections, where he was sighted sharing money.
‘Go tough on troublemakers’
Lagos lawyer Mohammed Fawehinmi advised the government to go tough on persons causing electoral violence and other electoral malpractices.
He urged the government to prosecute them, like the EFCC did against Ishiyaku Garba.
Fawehinmi said: “Just as the President made a pronouncement last year that security officials should deal with anyone attempting to snatch ballot boxes or cause violence.”
“The Electoral Act now should reflect a more stringent approach to electoral violence by law enforcement agencies. I think they should be given more powers. There should be punishment for people who cause electoral violence. Of course, people who steal ballot boxes should be punished.”
“There should be summary prosecution for such people, people who cause electoral mayhem, it should be very severe, I think with this electoral violence will reduce. If a politician knows he is going to serve 25 years imprisonment, no parole, nothing, I think he will sit up and all these killings will stop.
The lawyer also advocated a change in Nigerians’ orientation about elections as well as the adoption of electronic voting, among other suggestions.
“I think we still need re-orientation when it comes to elections, because whenever there’s a football match, there’s no dichotomy of either Muslim or Christian, northerner or southerner; we all rush to the stadium and watch. But when elections come, that’s when killings start.
“At the same time, I think we should start thinking of electronic voting. The world has left us behind.
‘Modernise voting, collation process’
Human Rights Law Service (HURILAWS) Senior Legal/Programme Officer Collins Okeke believes modernising Nigeria’s voting and collation process is one way to improve elections and electioneering, as recommended by the 2008 Justice Mohammed Uwais report.
Okeke noted that Nigeria operates a semi-electronic voting system, whereby registration of voters is done electronically but voting and collation of results are done manually.
He observed “The use of card reader machines for authentication of voters has not significantly improved the credibility of the election process.
“The collation of election results is also done manually.
“It is incrementally done at polling booths, electoral wards, local governments, states and federal for the presidential election. This process is ridiculously slow and cumbersome.
“In the 2019 presidential elections, it took INEC a total of four days to conclude the process of voting and collation of results. This created tension and a lot of anxiety.
“There is an urgent need to modernise the voting and collation process by introducing electronic voting. Electronic voting will drastically reduce the time it takes to vote, collate and release election results.
“It will, to a certain level limit the involvement of persons from accreditation to result release and increase voter participation. A voter can register in one part of the country and vote in another.
“The Uwais Report recommended a gradual introduction of electronic voting. The report was submitted in 2008. Eleven years after, Nigeria is ready for electronic voting.”