Off-cycle polls: KDI says 50 violence, 4 deaths cases recorded

Off-cycle polls: KDI says 50 violence, 4 deaths cases recorded

•Commends INEC on improved BVAS, IReV functionality

Joel Oladele, Abuja

Report by Kimpact Development Initiative(KDI) on the just concluded off-cycle governorship elections held in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo States on November 11, 2023 has revealed that a total of 50 violence and 4 deaths cases were recorded during the exercise.

KDI, an election violence monitoring and mitigation group disclosed this to newsmen at a Press Conference held in Abuja on Tuesday.

Reading the report as signed by  Executive Director of the group, Bukola Idowu, he said out of the 50 cases of election-related violence, 19 happened in Imo, 17 in Bayelsa, while Kogi recorded the lowest with 14 incidents.

According to him, out of the 4 cases of fatalities recorded, 3 occured in Kogi State which involved a citizen with an NYSC uniform killed in Ankpa Local Government Area of the state while the other one was in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

“In continuation of KDI’s analysis, on November 11, 2023, the KDI Election Day Data Room recorded 50 violence cases across Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo States. Imo accounted for the highest number with 19 incidents of violence, while Bayelsa followed closely behind with 17 incidents. Kogi recorded the lowest number of incidents among the 3 states, with 14 incidents.

” The prevalent forms of violence carried out during the election include intimidation and harassment, voter suppression, ballot box snatching, sporadic gunshots, and political party thug clashes. KDI recorded 4 fatalities in the 11th November governorship election in Kogi State; 2 people were shot by security agents in Dekina LGA for trying to snatch ballot boxes, while a citizen with an NYSC uniform was also killed in Ankpa LGA. 1 death was recorded in Brass LGA in Bayelsa State during the collation of results.” he said.

The KDI Director also noted that women were not spared from the violence as a fraction of the victims in each state were found to be female, a development he vehemently condemned.

“In certain polling units in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi, voters were practically chased out and prevented from voting if they were not going to vote for certain political parties. Political party thugs were seen displaying guns to scare voters away while brazenly announcing that voters should go back home if they were not going to vote one way or the other. 

“Party thugs and party agents perpetrated these incidents of violence. Voters and INEC officials were largely the victims. Some party agents were also recorded to be victims of violence. We recorded over 123 victims of election day violence across the three states. A disaggregation of this indicated that 21% of the victims in Bayelsa were female, while 11% of the victims in Imo state were female. In Kogi state, the female victims were identified to be 7%.” he stated

Rating the functionality of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC’s Result Viewing Portal’s (IReV), Idowu noted that although there were technical hitches, he commended Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for an improved performance compared to 2023 general elections.

“BVAS, since the inception of its use in Nigeria’s elections, has afforded the opportunity for increased transparency; KDI has continuously expressed her belief in the BVAS innovation.  For most of the day, BVAS functioned well, an improvement from the 2023 general elections. 

“The functionality of the BVAS was swift in PUs observed in both Bayelsa and Kogi, as accreditation was done within 1-2 minutes in 91.67% of the polling units in Bayelsa and 82.50% of the polling units in Kogi. Things were not the same for Imo State, as accreditation took up to 3 minutes and above at the polling units observed. 

“However, like any technology, the BVAS is not perfect, as we recorded some malfunction, hanging and outright malfunction of the technology in some of the polling units observed. 

“The challenges with the BVAS took the form of low battery, failure to accredit, slow functioning and some other system issues that observers could not determine.  However, the faulty BVAS was replaced swiftly in 80% of the polling units where the faulty BVAS was observed to have malfunctioned.

“KDI noted that the INEC’s Result Viewing Portal’s (IReV) functionality was not in question. There were no reports of INEC officials’ inability to upload results in PU observed. This is commendable and an improvement from the February 2023 elections.” He noted.

He therefore recommended that “all stakeholders: INEC, political parties, candidates, youth leaders, security officers and political Stalwarts to please play by the rules and ensure a peaceful atmosphere post-election. If there is any concern, they should seek redress within the ambit of the law. 

“Security Agency should investigate and prosecute all electoral offenders arrested in the November 11, 2023 off-cycle governorship elections, which should be widely publicized to serve as a deterrent for others. 

“Vote buying is still very much present in Nigerian politics, and it is now done with impunity in the Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi Governorship Election. There is a need for both the electorates and the politicians to move away from the politics of vote buying to engender free and fair elections in the true sense of the word.  

“The media is encouraged to use their platforms in a time like this to propagate more peace messages and circulate more verified information. Likewise, KDI would like to encourage all citizens to ensure that they get information from well-respected and proven websites, news outlets and social media platforms. They are also urged to fact-check information before circulating it because fake news can trigger post-election violence- False information is often designed to mislead and aimed at heating the polity.

“We call for an independent inquiry and process audit of INEC to set the tone for holistic reforms of the commission’s operations and electoral process. 

“Equally, we join our voice with that of those calling for unbundling INEC and decentralising some of the commission’s mandate for ease of election administration.”