Press statement on the Off-cycle Elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa States, “A call for vigilance and cooperation.”
As Nigeria counts down to the Off-Cycle elections to be held in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa States in November, CLEEN Foundation published an official statement on the 11th of October after a thorough analysis on the level of security threats in the aforementioned states.
Ahead of the November 11th off-cycle elections, there are fears of potential violence surrounding the electoral process; this includes a risk of weaponization of social media, drug abuse, small arms and light weapons, separatist groups, militias and voter suppression. The drivers of conflict, misinformation, tribalism and instability are clear in the political antecedents of these states.
Threats like violence and intimidation, hate speech, voter suppression have been identified and, in our statement, we called for security alerts from the Nigeria Police Force (NPF)and other supporting agencies, the establishment of an Inter-Agency consultative committee on election security as well as civil society and media vigilance while respecting and maintaining the rule of law.