Kogi: Cancel The Results, It Was A War Not Election – Observer Group

Affirming that what happened in Kogi State on Saturday was war and not an election, the Centre for Transparency Advocacy, CTA has called for an outright cancellation of the results generated.

The group which deployed 50 observers to monitor the elections affirmed that even the observers were lucky to escape the brigandage as thugs wrecked havoc with security officials assisting them or looking the other way.

The statement issued by the executive director of the group, Faith Nwadishi even affirmed that national commissioners and senior staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC were also held hostage in some places.

The group said:

“Having mobilized for the observation of the Kogi Governorship and Kogi West Senatorial Elections on the 16th of November 2019 and having fully participated in the exercise with the deployment of 50 observers throughout the state, and having reviewed our experience in detail, the Centre for Transparency and Advocacy calls for the immediate cancellation of the elections.

“We have taken this stand because of our strong belief that what happened in Kogi was war not elections, we feel that strongly. True, we have witnessed many cases of electoral malfeasance in the past, but the ones perpetrated in Kogi State on the 16th of November 2019 in the name of elections are on a different scale entirely. The level of violence, intimidation and vote buying with security agents doing absolutely nothing against these and, in some cases, helping to perpetrate these calls for a total cancellation of the election.

“Certainly, the Centre for Transparency Advocacy is not impressed by the inability, unwillingness and failure of security agencies to intervene to stop hoodlums from perpetrating violence. The violence was widespread throughout the state, but more especially so in areas of Ganaja, Lokoja, and Kogi West and Kogi East. At least, by the time of this report, six persons have been reportedly killed. 4 of these persons were very young persons killed during an attack at a Polling Unit located at Adankolo LGA Primary School in Lokoja.

“In fact, our observers were lucky to escape an attack in Ganaja when youths in the area blocked the highway between Lokoja and Ajaokuta and got engaged in fierce pitch battles with the security forces. Earlier in the day, our observers had witnessed a battle between community members and thugs trying to snatch ballot boxes in one of the Polling Units in one of the villages near Ayangba. They had to turn back before actually getting too close to the incident because of the heavy gunshots they were hearing. Even INEC officials, including National Commissioners, Resident Electoral Commissioners who were supervising the elections, were held hostage at Salem University before a detachment of heavily armed security personnel came to their rescue. 

“This cannot go on. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should not reward this type of desperation by politicians by making a return on this election in Kogi State. This is unacceptable and the outcome of the election should not be allowed to stand.

“The Centre for Transparency and Advocacy (CTA) therefore calls for the outright cancellation of the results of the Governorship and the Senatorial Elections so as to send a strong message to the political class that our electoral umpire  will not make itself available to be used to sabotage our country and our democracy.  All stakeholders must support INEC in delivering credible and violence free elections in the country.”

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