By Yusuf Mohammed
Security lapses are traceable to security agencies
When 1999 ushered in democracy, many Nigerians thought that the era of using the barrel of a gun to assume public office was over. They believed that in this new dawn, the power to elect their leaders was now solely in their hands. But many have argued that that hasn’t quite been the case. The manner in which leaders have emerged over the years, they say, contradicts the tenet of democracy.
Almost 25 years later, Nigeria’s electoral process is still being accompanied by violence under the ‘’watchful eye’’ of security agencies who should, as much as possible, be ensuring a hitch free process and safety of the electorate.
Apparently, violence: driven by political thugs is a proven strategy in disrupting the voting process in the country. And politicians who are believed to be the sponsors, seem to have mastered the dark arts of violence as it has worked repeatedly.
A free and fair election can’t be achieved without adequate security. A pertinent question on the lips of many Nigerians is: have the security agencies become readily available tools in the hands of corrupt politicians or are they simply overstretched?
This report takes a look at the shortcomings of security agencies and the twin crisis of electoral violence and voter apathy.
On the eve of every election in Nigeria, security chiefs issue stern warnings to potential electoral offenders, especially those who are purveyors of violence. Their warnings now sound like a broken record as men of the underworld hold sway during the elections.
Some argue that there are not enough security personnel to go round during general elections as people vote simultaneously across the 36 states of the country. However, the fact that off-cycle elections are not devoid of violence could defeat that argument.
For political observers, the November 16, 2019 off-cycle elections in Kogi and Bayelsa States readily come to mind. According to the Centre for Democracy and Development, (CDD), 10 deaths and 129 cases of violence and electoral crimes were recorded in the Kogi and Bayelsa governorship polls.
This is according to an analysis of the elections done by the centre’s Election Analysis Centre (CDD–EAC) which deployed observers as well journalists across polling units to the states.
“Elections which should have enabled citizens to express their democratic preferences were violently and crudely undermined by an unrelenting band of partisan outlaws. The magnitude of the violent assault on the sanctity of the ballot was shocking. The outcome of a process that was so criminally subverted should not be allowed to stand,” the report, which was signed by the group’s director, Idayat Hassan, says.
The report of the group shows that 10 deaths, 79 cases of violence and election malpractices were recorded by the group across the 21 Local Government Areas of Kogi State alone.
These incidents include the hijack of electoral materials by thugs, the abduction of INEC ad hoc staff, vote buying, voter intimidation, attacks on observers, under-aged voting, and widespread stuffing of ballot boxes, ballot snatching and multiple voting.
The group further blamed the security agencies for complacency. It said the agencies “gave hoodlums free hand as they moved freely, carrying out their nefarious acts against voters.”
In the same period, Salome Abuh, the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) woman leader, was burnt alive at Ochadamu, Kogi State.
She was gruesomely murdered by political thugs shortly after the announcement of the results of the governorship election of November 16, 2019.
The state police command said that six suspects were arrested in connection with her murder.
The federal elections that preceded the off-cycle elections of 2019, though peaceful in some parts of the country, were marred with widespread killings. In Rivers, at least four people were shot dead in different local government areas.
In Bayelsa, two people were killed in Nembe LGA, while two people died in Ebonyi following a clash between supporters of political parties.
A few months earlier, on the morning of the 2019 presidential election, 19-year-old Daniel Usman, who was a 100-level student of Federal University, Lokoja was gunned down by political thugs minutes after he got to the Ajetachi polling unit in Anyigba, Kogi State.
Newswatchplus learnt that the suspects said to be working for one of the two leading political parties killed the victim during an argument on who he should vote for.
William Aya, spokesman of the Kogi state police command, confirmed the incident to the press, saying the police had launched investigation. Till date, no suspect has been apprehended.
In the 2019 elections, the European Union Election Observation Mission said about 150 people were killed due to violence.
Sadly, there was a repeat in the 2023 general elections and the recent off-cycle elections held in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States. In the 2023 general elections, 24 deaths and 238 cases of violence were recorded.
This spate of violence predates the most recent elections as the return to democracy in 1999 wasn’t without bloodshed. In the aftermath of the 1999 presidential election, there was wide spread violence due to allegations of fraud. It is estimated that about 80 people were killed as a result.
It’s evident that nothing much was done to prevent a recurrence in 2003 as no fewer than 100 people were killed during incidents of violence triggered by federal and state elections. Four years later (2007) it got worse as over 300 people lost their lives in electoral violence. In fact, in the build up to that year’s election, more than 70 lives were lost.
2011 electoral violence is in a league of its own in Nigeria’s political history. According to Human Rights Watch, over 800 people were killed over three days of rioting in 12 states across northern Nigeria. Security agencies seemed helpless.
“The violence began with widespread protests by supporters of the main opposition candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, a northern Muslim from the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), following the re-election of incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the Niger Delta in the south, who was the candidate for the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP),” noted Human Rights Watch.
Again, the security agencies failed to arrest culprits to serve as a deterrent for future elections. They moved on like no life was lost. Due to the horror of 2011, tension spilled over to general elections four years later. Tension, reached fever pitch and culminated into loss and lives and properties as usual.
According to the International Crisis Group, more than 100 people lost their lives during and after the general elections in 2015.
Accusing fingers are pointed at the ineffectiveness of security forces for the cycle of violence in election that is supposed to be the hallmark of democracy.
Nigeria’s democracy is young and still growing: so is the rise of political thugs who are there to help rig elections. They have been growing alongside Nigerian democracy and are fast becoming a permanent feature during elections.
The last general elections was not without controversies. There were cases of snatching of ballot boxes by thugs and in some cases, people were killed.
There were several videos of political thugs warning people of an ethnic group not to come out and vote. It happened in 2019 in Lagos and it reared its ugly head again in 2023 due to lack of accountability.
The National Human Rights Commission has listed states where it documented records of voter suppression in the 2023 general election. Among the states are Lagos, Rivers, Imo, Ebonyi and Bayelsa.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the NHRC said it recorded 22 incidents of hate speeches during the elections.
Presenting a report to newsmen, the Project Coordinator of Mobilising Voters for Election of the NHRC, Hilary Ogbonna, also noted the level of human rights violations associated with the elections.
Ogbonna said during the March 18 elections, voter suppression was recorded in Lagos, Rivers, Imo, Ebonyi, Bayelsa.
”The right to freedom of association were violated in Ebonyi and Lagos, right to dignity of Human Person in Lagos, Edo, Delta, Benue.
“The right to participation was also violated in Lagos, Oyo, Rivers while voting related killings were recorded in Ebonyi, Kano, Lagos, Borno,” he said.
Ogbonna said the situation room records showed that there were two bomb attacks in Benue and Kaduna during the March elections.
He added that 75 facilities of INEC were attacked by unknown gunmen and bandits.
Unfortunately, voter suppression is not carried out by thugs alone. Credible reports have accused security agents of taking part in intimidating voters.
According to a Premium Times’ report after the 2019 general elections, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) stated that in some areas, members of the security forces played an active role in disrupting collation activities.
“In Lagos State, observers at one WCC in the heart of Nigeria’s commercial capital noted that ‘security agents chased everybody outside with guns when the results were being collated,” it reported.
“Malfeasance by soldiers and other security agents especially disrupted ward-level collation in Rivers State.
“Elections in several LGAs in the state were heavily disrupted by security agencies tasked with safeguarding the process. As a result, tens of thousands of voters were disenfranchised.
“In Okrika LGA, for example, security personnel invaded the INEC office in the LGA and snatched official collated election results. Before doing so, the same security agents had threatened collation centre officials by shooting their firearms into the air.
“Earlier, during ward-level collation, a team of soldiers led by an army officer suspended collation and ordered his men to take away all materials, including results being collated by election officials.
“The materials were carted away with nothing left for the electoral officer to present as evidence for the election, according to observers. Soldiers similarly seized results from four other wards, according to observers from Stakeholder Democracy Network, a CDD partner.”
Since 1999, the turnout of voters has been dwindling. And a major reason for this decline is violence and intimidation.
A social commentator, Chinedeu Ifejika, who has his permanent voter’s card said “If election is being rigged without violence, people would still be hoping for miracles. But there is no hope for a dead person.”
Before 2023, the 2019 election recorded the lowest voter turnout of 34.75 per cent. In 2019, only a meagre 28.6 million votes were cast despite 82 million eligible voters. The winner, President Muhammadu Buhari, was re-elected with just over 15 million votes in a country of more than 200 million citizens. More than half of the country’s population is within the voting age range.
Of the 93.4 million registered voters this year, 87.2 million people collected their Permanent Voters Cards and the total number of actual voters on Election Day was only 24.9 million.
Overall, the national turnout was 29 per cent; no election had a lower participation rate in the six decades of Nigeria’s independence.
Again, this could be largely attributed to insecurity. About 38 of the 50 people with PVCs who were asked why they didn’t bother to vote in the last general elections said they weren’t sure of their safety.
Speaking of security agencies, there is no agency as pronounced as the Nigerian Police Force as far as election is concerned. Of all the security agencies, the police, particularly is singled out and recognized in the 2022 Electoral Act. The NPF is there to protect the lives and property of everyone in Nigeria. And when it comes to elections, they have the power to investigate, arrest and prosecute electoral offenders.
Yet it has not been proactive in its duty of enforcing the law during elections. As a result of the poor performance by the police, there is an ongoing agitation for the creation of Electoral Offences Commission, and accordingly a special tribunal to try such offences.
The Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of the Department of Information and Communication Technology, Force Headquarters, Abuja, Daniel Sokari-Pedro, before the off-cycle elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa States said that one of the reasons electoral malpractice and violence keep recurring is that the sponsors are not being arrested and the suspects who do the dirty job of the sponsors don’t get prosecuted.
The DIG said, “The trend of election brigandage is becoming a known norm for two major reasons.
“One, when suspects are arrested, they are treated with kid gloves, and secondly, the sponsors are not always arrested, and when they are arrested, they are not always prosecuted, this encourages the culture of impunity.’’
Meanwhile, in what seems to be a bright spot, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) will commence the prosecution of electoral offenders in January 2024, Newswatchplus has learnt.
Following the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections, the immediate past Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, said that over 700 offenders across the country were arrested by police officers for violation of electoral laws.
Baba made this known during a meeting with commissioners of police from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory on March 27, 2023.
A document made available to the press last month by the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, showed that a total of 1,076 electoral offenders were arrested in 35 states across the country during the February and March general elections.
The breakdown of the offenders by state shows that of the 191 case files prepared for prosecution, Ebonyi State alone has 64 cases, making it the highest number of cases, followed by Edo and Anambra states.
Oyekanmi said, ‘’All is now set for the prosecution of 1,076 electoral offenders arrested in 35 states across the country during the 2023 general elections held in February and March in an unprecedented collaboration between INEC and the Nigerian Bar Association. The Nigeria Police Force is also involved in the synergy.
‘’However, 191 case files have been prepared. Ebonyi State has the highest number of cases with 64, involving 216 suspects. Edo State is second with 22 cases and 80 suspects, while Anambra State is third with 12 cases involving 66 suspects.’’
According to Oyekanmi, the electoral offences ranged from culpable homicide and unlawful possession of firearms, snatching and destroying of INCE items, being in possession of offensive weapons, misconduct at polling units stealing of election results, among others.
The CPS further revealed that the commission would mobilise 191 prosecutors to prosecute the electoral offenders.
While it is a positive development that some electoral offenders will be prosecuted, many are of the view that that isn’t enough. Those at the helm of affairs must have the political will to change the status quo. It is the best way to put an end to electoral malpractice which would get the ball rolling for true democracy.
Olusegun Adeniyi revealed in his book: Power, Politics and Death that President Umar Musa Yar’Adua on one occasion said ‘’If we will be honest with ourselves, we all know how we rig elections in this country. We compromise the security agencies, we pay the electoral officials and party agents, while on the eve of the election we merely distribute logistics all designed to buy the votes.’’
Culled from Newswatch Plus
