Violence, Insecurity Threaten Kogi, Imo Bayelsa Guber Elections

Akani Alaka

With the November 11, 2023 governorship elections in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa States just a few weeks away, political parties are expected to rev up their campaigns in the next few days.
However, that prospect has come with trepidations for residents of the states as heads are already being broken while blood is being spilt in the current jostling for votes by contenders in the elections and their supporters in the three states.
No doubt, the highest level of violence at least for now is in Kogi where supporters of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and the Social Democratic Party, SDP, which has emerged as a major challenger in the election have been at each other’s throat.
While the state Governor, Yahaya Bello is rounding off his second term, he has not hidden his determination to ensure that the next occupant of Lugard House is Ahmed Usman Ododo, his party’s candidate who is also his kinsman.
However, Muritala Ajaka, the candidate of SDP who is from the Kogi East populated by the Igala, the single largest ethnic group in the state has emerged as the biggest threat to that ambition. Ajaka was a former member of APC who left the party after he failed to get the party’s governorship ticket. Former Senator Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party is also considered one of the visible candidates in the November 11 election.

APC, SDP Violence In Kogi

But the violence has so far been between the APC and the SDP, perhaps because both parties see themselves as the major threat to each other in the election.
Ajaka had soon after he defected to the SDP successfully got a court order from a high court in Abuja to stop the state government from arresting him. This followed suspicion that the state government was planning to take the popular SDP out of circulation by clamping him into detention for trumped-up charges.
The campaign office of the SDP candidate has been attacked and vandalized in Lokoja, the state capital since it was opened some weeks ago. Supporters of the party have also clashed during campaigns in various parts of the state.
The SDP has repeatedly accused Governor Bello of unleashing violence on its members because of his desperation to impose Ododo on the state.
The latest such clashes occurred in the Kotonkarfe area of the area where a lady said to be a member of APC lost her life while many others were injured in the campaign violence.
As usual, both parties have been trading accusations on who was responsible for the attack. Faruk Adejoh-Audu, spokesperson of the Ajaka Campaign Organization in a statement blamed APC supporters, who, according to him, launched double attacks on the campaign train of SDP with sophisticated assault rifles. “Party supporters scampered in different directions while the fiery thugs descended on the event gears, namely podium, canopies, chairs, and public address systems. They fired bullets into the giant speakers, smashed several hundreds of chairs and canopies, and then sustained the gunfire for over 15 minutes,” Adejoh said.
SDP subsequently called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Inspector General of Police, as well as the National Security Adviser (NSA), to “rein in this outlaw of a governor before he succeeds in wreaking genocide on the people of Kogi State out of desperation.”
However, the APC, while identifying the lady killed during the rally as its member, accused SDP members of instigating the violence. Kingsley Fanwo, Kogi Commissioner for Information and Communication who doubles as Spokesman/Director, Media and Publicity, Kogi APC told journalists that the “woman was killed by bullets from the barrels of the SDP rifles,” three days after the incident.
He noted that the SDP candidate had said the police were not informed of the rally while he alleged that Ajaka had repeatedly threatened violence in the course of his campaign without appropriate response by the police.
However, while condemning the violence at Kotonkarfe, the state police command had also accused Ajaka of failing to inform it of his rallies as well as shunning meetings it convened with political parties participating in the election.
In response, the SDP said obedience to a subsisting court order is responsible for the inability of Ajaka to honour any invitation by the Police.
The party was particularly concerned by the indictment of its candidate by the police, alleging a plot to set him up for arrest on trumped-up charges of terrorism by the state government: “Their ultimate plot is to set him up as a terrorist and clamp him to jail. We are talking about people who tag anyone who renounces their association as bandits or terrorists to make them fit for the Gulag. Alhaji Ajaka is a decent and humble politician who will not walk into their evil traps, ” Adejoh-Audu said while appealing to the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government to show more than a cursory interest in the Kogi election by calling any overzealous state actors to order.
Nembe Violence
In Bayelsa, Governor Douye Diri who is seeking a second term of office in the November election is also worried about recent violence which claimed at least three lives in the politically violent Nembe Local Government Area of the State. His major opponent in the election, Timipre Sylva hails from the local government which was a major theatre of electoral violence in the 2019 election.
Indeed, Diri could not campaign in Nembe in 2019 because of the outbreak of violence that claimed 21 lives as later confirmed by a Panel of Inquiry set up by the then outgoing governor, Seriake Dickson to probe the incident.
Dickson had described the incident as “tragic and sacrilegious, ”noting that it was unfortunate that the perpetrators of the evil acts were not arrested to face the full wrath of the law. “The Federal Government appeared not to be bothered about people who were killed in the name of politics and election. They wanted to take this state by force, and we thought, we should document it,” Dickson said then.
Ironically, Governor Diri is also accusing the police of being complicit in the violence that also claimed lives in the Bassambiri community of the local government. And when he hosted PDP members from Nembe recently, Diri was emphatic that Sylva masterminded the violence on the people of the Bassambiri community because the man behind the killings in the area is his ally.
However, the APC and its governorship candidate had repeatedly denied the accusation. Diri was in the local government recently to receive the blessings of the traditional ruler, Dr Edmond Daukoru Mingi XIII for his second-term ambition.
During the visit, Diri had said traditional rulers must ensure peace and prevent electoral violence in their domains because his administration would wield the big stick and dethrone any of them found wanting.
However, the governor had also last Friday raised the alarm on an alleged plot to instigate violence in Ogbia local government area during the November 11 governorship election.

Fear Of Gunmen In Imo

In Imo, the campaign by political parties has not kicked off full steam. However, given the gruesome attacks that have been witnessed in the state, including the dastardly murder of security operatives at Umualumaku in Ehime Mbano Local Government Area of the state, it is doubtful if politicians will be able to freely campaign ahead of the 11/11 governorship election.
While most of the attacks have been attributed to gunmen aligned to IPOB by security operatives, the leading opposition parties in the state PDP and Labour Party have heaped blame on the incumbent Governor, Hope Uzodimma who is seeking re-election on the platform of APC for failing to rise to the security challenge.
“It is inexplicable that Imo has become a war theatre and the epicentre of violence and bloodbath in the entire South East,” the candidate of LP, Sen. Athan Achonu said during the launch of his campaign at the Chioma Ajunwa Sports Complex Nguru in Mbaise Local Government Area recently.
The candidate of the PDP, Senator Samuel Anyanwu also lamented that Imo is gradually turning into a Boko Haram state because of the level of insecurity.
On his part, Governor Uzodimma has blamed the opposition for the violence.

INEC Worried

In a statement on Sunday, INEC said it was worried by the spate of insecurity and violence, including clashes among supporters of political parties ahead of the three governorship elections. National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee of INEC, Mr Sam Olumekun said that the commission had constantly urged parties to rein in their supporters from actions capable of jeopardising the peaceful conduct of elections in Nigeria during its meetings with them.
“INEC earnestly appeal to all political parties and candidates to avoid utterances and acts that may heat the polity. The commission will continue to closely monitor the situation and sustain its engagement with security agencies and stakeholders to ensure peaceful conduct of elections in the three states,” Olumekun said.

INEC, NSA Must Act Now

However, the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought (ASSPT) at the end of a policy roundtable on the elections urged INEC and National Security Adviser to the President, Nuhu Ribadu, to adopt security measures that would guarantee the credibility and also ensure that the polls did not escalate insecurity in the three states.
The roundtable was organised under the theme, “The gubernatorial elections in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa: A national security challenge.”
The Director of ASSPT, Sam Amadi, who spoke at the event, noted that reports of killings, including some soldiers in Imo and an alleged threat to the life of the SDP governorship candidate in Kogi called for concerns.
He also asked INEC to look into the demand by four political parties in Imo for the change of its state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) from conducting the election over allegations of working with the incumbent governor.
Amadi added that the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to look into the demand for the redeployment of the Imo state Police Commissioner before the state election.
He also urged INEC to clarify reports making the rounds that it wanted to do a manual collation of results in Bayelsa.
“INEC should let the people know its decision, especially on electronic transmission of results. The electronic transmission of results should be a matter of must and we do not want technical failure,’’ he said.