Senate Condemns Electoral Violence in Kogi, Bayelsa ...Asks IG to prosecute killers of women leader

The Senate on Tuesday  flayed the wave of electoral violence recorded during the recent gubernatorial elections held in Kogi and Bayelsa States.

It also  called on the Inspector-General of Police (IG), Mohammed Adamu, to arrest and prosecute the killers of the Women Leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kogi State, Mrs. Salome Abu, and held a minute silence in honour of the deceased.     

These resolutions were sequel to the adoption of  a motion  titled: ‘Curbing Electoral Violence’, sponsored by Senator George  Sekibo, who quoted report of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) saying about 58 people were killed in 61 incidents of election violence across 22 states in the country between January and February 2015.    

He observed that political thuggery increased in 2019 compared to previous elections, adding that privileged politicians use either armed thugs or security agents to disrupt smooth elections.    

According to him, the recent violence witnessed during and after the elections in Bayelsa and Kogi States has called to question the credibility of the electoral process in Nigeria.            

    

He said: “The resultant effect of the electoral mayhem would reduce the credibility of our electoral process and deepen hatred as well as widen the gap of our unity.                                          

“The country’s electoral management body is not strong enough to withstand the pressure exerted by the political system and the electoral misconducts that accompany it continue to threaten the deepening of democratisation process.        

                                        

“This negative effect of electoral violence in the country would continue to reduce the citizens' confidence in the democratic process as well as heighten the fears of possible democratic collapse.”                                 

While contributing , Senate Minority Leader,  Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, condemned in no uncertain terms the violence reported in the two states. 

He stressed that people have been known and seen to perpetuate violence and nothing has been done to them.            

According to the senator, "Once nothing is done to somebody who commits crime, once nobody pays the price for criminality of this nature, it only creates further violence, and so what we should also add there that the law enforcement agencies must be up to task.

"The husband of the woman who was killed in Kogi State has identified those who killed his wife, and till today, nothing has been done to them, all that we have been hearing is all manner of excuses, and if you don't curb it through the use of enforcement, you will only see that pattern continue to grow, so we would want to urge all the legal instrument that can be used in this country to be able to curb electoral violence."

On his part, Senate Leader, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, emphasised that the issue of electoral violence has been with Nigeria for a long time since the emergence of this republic in 1999. 

He said: "The specter of violence and its attendant consequences are some of the unhealthiest events in the country, and for which I believe that all of us (politicians) irrespective of the various parties we belong to have a responsibility to address and curb it, otherwise we will all become victims.

"So there is the need for us to urge the security agencies to really do their jobs. They should arrest and bring to book the perpetrators of the dastardly act, who are already known. It is important if the minority leader and I can come up with a by-partisan bill to look at the punishments for electoral violence, and see how we can make a law to effectively tackle electoral violence because electoral violence knows no partisanship. All politicians on all sides are guilty.”                                                             The Senate, thereafter, condemned the spate of electoral-related violence in the country and observed a minute silence for all those who lost their lives in the recent electoral violence in Bayelsa and Kogi States.

While urging the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to carry out a detailed campaign against electoral violence in subsequent elections, the Senate further advised the security agencies to expeditiously apprehend perpetrators of electoral violence in all the areas where they occurred and bring them to book.

Summing up contributions on the bill, Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, described the motion as a very important one, adding that "the minority leader and the Senate leader spoke the minds of all of us here.

"No party is free from this blame, and it is for us politicians to continue to enlighten our people to face politics as a game of ideas.

"I believe that those who perpetrated violence especially in the last elections in Bayelsa and Kogi States should be apprehended and prosecuted. I believe that this is the way to go; people should pay the price of their actions."