Group decries frequency, intensity of electoral violence, calls for tolerance

AN international non-profit organisation, Search for Common Ground, has decried the increased frequency and intensity of electoral violence observed during and after the just concluded Kogi off-cycle gubernatorial elections.

Country Director of the organisation, Mr Sher Ali Nawaz, disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen in Lokoja, Kogi State on Saturday.

He called on aggrieved parties in the election to eschew violence and embrace tolerance and as he urged them to embrace peace and peaceful resolution of the disagreements.

The group, he said, expressed deep concern over the killing of a 60-year-old woman activist who was an active participant in various capacity-building initiatives implemented by the group, aimed at violence prevention.

He said the organisation with a mandate for promotion of peaceful resolution of conflicts in the 43 countries where it is operating, had its fair share of violence during the election as one of its staff was attacked.

“Search for Common Ground has also been a victim of the recent trend of violence, particularly, on 16th November 2019 while voting was ongoing in Kogi State.

“One of Search for Common Ground’s staff members who was on her routine field visit to Ganaja community was attacked along with other observers from the Civil Society Situation Room.

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“The objective of the visit for Search staff was to verify and validate the reports from community-based early warning networks established by Search for Common Ground for prevention and mitigation of electoral violence.

“These networks are established by Search for Common Ground in the 21 LGAs of Kogi State with trained community focal points linked to an SMS based online reporting platform,” he said.

The Country Director said Search duly recognised the risk of a possible outbreak of electoral violence before, during and after the off-cycle gubernatorial elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states.

Accordingly, he said, Search in partnership with National Democratic Institute (NDI) through funding from US Government (USAID), undertook and implemented activities to increase participation of marginalised groups in the elections.

“These interventions are part of the Electoral Empowerment of Civil Society Project (EECSP), which includes focus on strengthening community-based early warning systems for prevention and mitigation of electoral violence.

Search, therefore, called on all “responsible” stakeholders particularly the security agencies to ensure peace and security in post-election contexts.

It also encouraged the people of Kogi to maintain peaceful coexistence irrespective of their political affiliation and embrace post-election unity in a bid to foster collective welfare.