Violence, intimidation, thuggery mar Kano rerun election, says group

A foreign observer based in South Africa,  Pan African Women Projects has said the supplementary election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in Kano was marred by violence, Intimidation and partisanship on the part of the security operatives as well as voters disenfranchisement.

publicity secretary of the group, Madam Mphoentle Keitseng at a press conference Tuesday in Kano, revealed that the supplementary election was also characterized by thuggery, abuse of electoral process, chased away of foreign observers and media personnel from gaining access to the polling units.

According to her, thuggery and voter intimidation were reported in almost all the polling units where the rerun was conducted with cases of loss of lives and other malpractices, under the watch of INEC officials and security agencies pointing that “it is evidence that INEC and security agencies were compromised”.

” The observed regulated violence and sponsored thuggery in Nassarawa, Madobi, Dala, Kura, Rimin-Gado and Kibiya local government areas. Women were not found queuing in most polling units we visited. We also observed that the two major political parties APC and PDP tried to undo each other for swift electoral victory, hence the palpable eruption of spontaneous crisis with some loss of human lives.

The group also observed ” Visible lacuna in our electoral act with regards to the role and responsibilities of the INEC. We call for immediate review of the said act of strengthen the functionalities of the INEC for  effective, responsive and coordinating activities in any type of subsequent election”.

The group however hailed the umpire for conducting the supplementary election across the nation despite numerous challenges.