Election-related violence kills dozens of Nigerians: Observers
Dozens of people have been killed in a wave of violence related to presidential and parliamentary elections in Nigeria, civil society groups monitoring the vote say, as the country is awaiting the results.
The Situation Room - which represents more than 70 civil society groups – said Monday that “election-related violence...led to the death of at least 39 Nigerians” in the last two days.
The Situation Room had over 8,000 observers around the country to monitor Saturday’s vote, in which President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking a second term in office.
The group said the worst incident was in Abonnema in Rivers State, around 14 kilometers west of the main oil industry city of Port Harcourt, where the army said seven people died in a shootout between an unidentified gang and Nigerian soldiers.
A lieutenant and six gunmen died in the firefight, which broke out when the attackers barricaded a major road into the town and ambushed the troops, the acting director of army public relations, Colonel Sagir Musa, said. The motive behind the attack was not clear.
The Situation Room further referred to reports that just over a quarter of the nearly 120,000 polling units were under-policed, and that there were “shortfalls and gaps” in security elsewhere. At least six states reportedly saw disruption in polling.
“Since beginning of campaigns in Oct. 2018, more than 260 politically motivated deaths,” Clement Nwankwo, convener of the Situation Room told reporters.
The Nigeria Police Force said 128 people had been arrested nationwide for election-related offenses, including homicide, theft of ballot boxes and vote fraud.
It added that officers also recovered 38 weapons and a cache of explosives.
However, the head of the African Union observer mission in Nigeria on Monday described Nigeria’s elections as “generally peaceful.”
Meanwhile, authorities in Nigeria have been on alert and braced for the possibility of further violence after election results are announced, possibly on Monday and more likely on Tuesday.
Previous elections have been marred by violence among supporters of different political parties.
As many as 100 people were killed during and after the last election in 2015, according to the International Crisis Group.
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