Ahead of Saturday’s elections, two civil society organisations say ensuring electoral justice is critical to peaceful and fair poll in the country.
Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Mr Auwal Musa-Rafsanjani and Chairperson, Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), Dr Abiola Akiyide-Afolabi stated this on Tuesday in Separate media interviews in Abuja.
Reacting to incidents of violence, killings, snatching of ballot boxes and vote-buying during Feb. 23 Presidential and National Assembly elections, the activists said that to guard against a repeat, all stakeholders must comply with electoral guidelines.
Musa-Rafsanjani said that once there was electoral justice, there would not be any attempt to rig the election, and “we will have a violent-free poll’’.
“Where the problems come usually is when there is the determination, effort and demonstration of rigging and blocking, repressing voters and intimidating them; that is where the problem usually comes.
“We believe that if there is electoral justice, if the parties and members comply with all the rules and regulations of the electoral guidelines, we will not have violence,” he stated.
Also, Akiyode-Afolabi said that there was the need for security agencies to employ strategies to gain the confidence of the people by being professional and non-partisan in their conduct.
According to her, they must ensure that people cast their votes without any form of intimidation.
“So, there is the need to gain the confidence of the people, because it is most likely we have a reduction in the voters’ turnout due to the violence in the last elections,” she said.
The TMG boss, who said that security agencies should adopt proactive approach rather than reactive, called on INEC to build Nigerians’ confidence on free, fair and credible elections.
“We don’t need military intervention, because the people are not comfortable with the role the military played in the last elections, especially in Rivers.
“However, the military can be on standby against those who may want to foment trouble,” she advised.
Akiyode-Afolabi acknowledged that the South-South, especially Rivers had history of electoral violence, and advised that security agencies should strike the balance in securing the area in order to avoid militarisation of the elections.
“We also must understand that the terrain is a tough one, militarising the election in that area has not helped.
“It will only complicate the matter, but security agencies must find a way of ensuring that they gain the confidence of the people back.
“And, I think what they did in the last election was to focus more on responding than preventing violence,” she said.