The National Human Rights Commission, or NHRC, has strongly denounced the election-related violence, particularly the murder of 10 law enforcement officers, security guards, and NNPP supporters in Kano State.
During the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly Elections, hate speech, political intolerance, and frequent attacks on INEC facilities were all specifically noted, according to the Executive Secretary Tony Ojukwu, SAN.
At the third Mobilising Voters for Election, MOVE, project review meeting in Abuja, Mr. Ojukwu announced this.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Ojukwu called these actions grave violations of human rights in the February edition.
Voter suppression and intimidation have also been reported in Lagos, Rivers, Imo, Ebonyi, Bayelsa, and Delta, making up the list of other grave human rights violations that have marked the election on Saturday.
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These new threats will affect the credibility and integrity of the electoral process, which could result in low turnout for the upcoming house of assembly and governor elections in March.
He said, “We applaud the behavior of security personnel during the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly Elections.”
He asserted 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 the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to follow the established procedures when compiling the results to ensure electoral process transparency.
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The Commission was praised for integrating human rights concerns into the electoral process by the Chairman of the Transition Monitoring Group, Auwal Musa Rafsanjeni, in his goodwill message.
He asserted that the violence connected to the elections it documented in February was strongly denounced by the National Human Rights Commission.
He cited the killings of 7 NNPP supporters in Kano State, the murders of 10 law enforcement officers and security guards, and other incidents.
