Elections: Rights commission condemns killing of 10 law enforcement agents

The National Human Rights Commission, or NHRC, has vehemently denounced the election-related violence, particularly the murders of seven NNPP supporters and 10 law enforcement and security personnel in Kano State.

In addition, attacks on INEC facilities by unidentified gunmen, political intolerance, and hate speech were repeatedly documented during the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly Elections, according to the Executive Secretary Tony Ojukwu, SAN.

In Abuja’s third monthly review meeting of the Mobilising Voters for Election, MOVE, project, Mr. Ojukwu announced this.

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According to The News Agency of Nigeria, Ojukwu referred to these actions as flagrant violations of human rights in the February edition.
Voter suppression and intimidation were reported in Lagos, Rivers, Imo, Ebonyi, Bayelsa, and Delta during the election on Saturday, among other serious human rights violations.

The credibility and integrity of the electoral process will be impacted by these new threats, which could result in low voter turnout in the upcoming March gubernatorial and house of assembly elections.

He said, “We applaud the behavior of security personnel during the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections.

He claimed that the reports coming out of the human rights situation room showed that the officers carried out their duties without suppressing or intimidating voters as had been seen in previous elections.
“Despite the massive turn out of voters, the law enforcement agent and security personnel were able to execute their role as human rights defenders during the electoral process.

”The Commission is calling on INEC to upload results electronically so as to validate the result being announced at the collation center.”This is within the law that uploading the result and transmitting hard copies of election results must be done simultaneously and this must be respected” he said.
In his remarks, Chinonye Obiagwu, SAN, the national coordinator of the Legal Defense and Assistance Project, or LEDAP, urged INEC to adhere to the established procedures when compiling the results in order to ensure electoral process transparency.

In a similar vein, the Chairman of the Transition Monitoring Group, Auwal Musa Rafsanjeni, praised the Commission for integrating human rights concerns into the electoral process in his well-wishes message.

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He claimed that the National Human Rights Commission strongly denounced the election-related violence it had observed in February.

He cited several incidents, most notably the murders of 7 NNPP supporters and 10 law enforcement and security personnel in Kano State.