From Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi
Wild jubilations by supporters of candidates that won various offices in the 2019 elections have been identified as the root cause of post election violence in some northern states of the country.
Mr Ado Solomon, Executive Director of a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), Forward in Action for Eradication of Poverty And Malnutrition (FAcE-Pam), said this in Bauchi while briefing newsmen on the “Nigeria Election Violence Report (NEVR)’ compiled by the NGO.
According to him, the organisation deployed 60 monitors to each of the six north eastern states to observe the entire electoral process from pre, during and post election activities adding that some of the reported violent incidences were clashes between party supporters in the build up to the elections, destruction of electoral materials, vote buying, voters intimidation and wild celebration of victory.
Buttressing his points further, Solomon revealed that post election jubilation allegedly led to the injury of four people and death of two in Adamawa state, destruction of a campaign office after the presidential election in Akko local government area of Gombe state and destruction of posters, bill boards belonging to APC in Ningi local government area of Bauchi state and injury of two people by unidentified thugs.
He said in Taraba state, PDP youth were allegedly attacked by APC youths on the 8th of March 2019 around Ramin Tippa resulting in the death of one person on the spot and injury of many others.
In Yobe state, he noted that a fight broke out in Bade local government, Murza unit of Dagona ward during elections saying however that if not for those few incidences, the 2019 elections in the six north eastern states were generally peaceful.
“We appreciate the support of International Foundation of Electoral System (IFES), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and UK Department for International Development (DFID)”, he said.
