The Senate has mooted the idea of a bipartisan bill to contain issues of electoral violence in the country even as it condemned the killings in election-related violence in the country.
This was as the Senate resolved that security agencies should expeditiously apprehend perpetrators of electoral violence in all the areas where it happens and charge them accordingly.
The resolution followed the motion by Senator George Sekibo, Rivers East on Curbing Electoral Violence.
The Senate at Tuesday plenary observed a minute’s silence in honour of those that lost their lives in the just concluded Bayelsa and Kogi elections and all previous elections and Urged the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to carry out a continued campaign against electoral violence in subsequent elections.
In his contribution to the motion, Minority leader of the Senate said the law enforcement agencies must live up to their bidding of detecting, arresting and prosecuting perpetrators of electoral violence in the country.
Absence of using the legal instrument to curb the criminal act would only embolden the perpetrators to grow the dastard pattern that will grow because it was aides by impunity.
“What we should also add there is that the law enforcement agencies must be up to task.
“The husband of the woman who was killed in Kogi has identified those who killed his wife in that dastardly act but nothing has been done till today.
“All that we have been hearing is one excuses for that, we will also say this, that where there is now a pattern, if you do not curb it through then use of law enforcement.
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“You will only see that pattern continue to grow and what we want to urge all the legal instrument that can be used in this country to be able to curb electoral violence in this country.
Leader of the Senate, Abdullahi Yahaya, while sharing the view of the minority leader said all the parties are guilty but warned that if the system condones impunity, politicians will be consumed by the monstrous phenomenon.
He said politicians who benefit from it should know that they are not immune to the consequences of electoral violence and called on all and sundry to condemn the act proposing a bipartisan bill to be evolved by himself and the Senate Minority leader.
He pointed out that though electoral violence has been associated with Nigeria’s political evolution the situation has worsened in recent times.
His words: The spectre of violence during electioneering is indeed very disturbing. This has been with us for a long time and particularly since the emergence of this republic in 1999.
“Mr President, the Spectre of violence and it’s attendant consequences is one of the unhealthiest events in our politics, for which I think all of the politicians irrespective of the parties to which we belong has a responsibility to address and to calm.
“Otherwise, we may also become its victims. We are riding on the back of a tiger if we do not take care of the direction it would move, it will also swallow us.
“Electoral violence knows no partisanship. I must be clear about it. All the politicians on all sides are guilty. Violence did not start when APC came to be power, violence started as I said from the beginning of our democratic journey in 1999, of course, there were some pockets of violence in the previous democratic experiences, they have not been as bad as terrible as they are today.
“If we do not curb this particular phenomenon it is going to be dangerous for our processes. I want to sympathise with all those who were mailed and those who lost their lives. And also to invite my colleagues to look at this thing as a danger to our polity and not to see it as a partisan matter. It is not.
“Therefore, for us, we should take responsibility and look for ways in curbing this very dangerous development in our politics.
The sponsor of the motion had stated that election was an integral part of the democratic process to enable the citizenry to determine fairly and freely, who should lead them periodically at every level of government and take decisions that will shape their socio-economic and political destiny.
He said that however, it has become a common experience that Nigerian elections are stained with electoral violence that predates the fourth democratic dispensation, which commenced in 1999, as earlier elections in the First,’Second and Third Republics experienced some dimension of violence which usually resulted in the loss of lives and destruction of properties.
The sponsor of the motion stated that democratic growth, development and stability comes through a learning process, however, such a learning process should be able to advance the positive elements of the lessons that could foster the needed development and stability for national cohesion,
integration and unity.
He pointed out through a flashback that, according to the United States Institute of Peace, in 2003 and 2007, 100 and 300 persons died respectively through election-related violence in the country. However, in 2011, post-election violence that took place in three days claimed 800 lives and properties that run into billions of naira were destroyed.
Further violence-related statistics according to National Human Rights Commission, between January and February 2015, about 58 people were killed in 61 incidents of election violence across 22 States in the country, while The Nigerian Security Tracker (NST) documented 106 election-related deaths out of which, 62 were killed months preceding the elections, 44 persons also died in the two weeks following the election; and most of the deaths were carried out by armed thug
The Rivers East Senator said that armed thuggery has increased more in 2019 compared to previous elections, with privileged politicians using either armed thugs or security agents to disrupt smooth electioneering process.
He expressed his worry thus: “The recent cannibalistic action of armed thugs carrying out carnage on each other before, during and after the elections in Bayelsa and Kogi States in the just concluded elections. This has called for the question.” he stated.
Sekibo wondered “which way is our country heading to?” in view of these.
and then