18 Died In Southwest During General Elections-KDI

By Ismail Kolapo

A non-governmental Organization, Kimpact Development Initiative KDI, has berated series of violence that marred the last presidential and National Assembly elections in Nigeria.

According to the group, no fewer than 18 people were reported dead in south western part of the country alone on the day of the elections which was held on February 23 and March 9 elections.

The NGO gave the report at a public presentation of the Nigeria Election Violence Report (NEVR) in South West held in Osogbo, Osun State capital.

Giving the break down, the South West Coordinator of the NEVR, Mr Bukola Idowu, enumerated that a total of ten persons were confirmed dead in Oyo state, 4 in Ondo, 2 persons in Ogun and 2 in Lagos, just as vote buying, distruption of election by suspected political thugs, and voter’s intimidation among other cases were also recorded in all the six state in the South West.

He advocated for stiffer punishment for electoral offenders, to serve as deterrence to others.

He urged the public to embank on peace initiative campaign before 2023 election in order to have a free, fair, credible and acceptable election.

According to the coordinator’recommendation, ” Electioneering process should be demonetized starting from party ticket fee”

He noted that politicians should do away with acts capable of causing crisis, saying campaign of calumny by the political parties should be checkmate.

He appealed to politicians on the need to straighten internal democracy, giving tips that :

“INEC need to increase the training schedule for ad hoc staff for proper understanding of the electioneering process.

“The electorate needing more information on their value and the need for them not to sell their vote, encouraging NOA, CSO and INEC on the need to share more information.

“And that partiality of security agencies should be checkmate.”

He however commended INEC officials, the Police, NSCDC, DSS and other security operatives for their support across the six state of the south West during the election.