“The soldiers were on a rampage, shooting at anyone around,” said a 37-year-old man who witnessed the episode. They also carried out sweeping arrests and arbitrarily detained several people. Witnesses said that after a soldier was killed in the town of Abonnema, in Rivers state, on election day, soldiers shot at residents, killing an unknown number of people. Witnesses said that the police also shot live rounds of ammunition and used teargas to disperse people protesting voting disruptions. Voters and election officials said that policemen either fled or stood idly by, fueling allegations of complicity, as perpetrators stole election materials, disrupted voting, and harassed voters. Despite police claims of increased security measures to ensure peaceful voting, there seems to have been little or no police response to reports of threats and acts of violence by hired political thugs and soldiers against voters and election officials, Human Rights Watch found. Human Rights Watch focused its research on both states in view of projections and reports of violence during the 2019 elections. The history of elections in both states is replete with violence by state security agencies and criminal elements. Rivers state, in the Niger Delta, receives the largest share of crude-oil-based national revenue, representing significant electoral value to any political party. Kano state, in northwestern Nigeria, has the highest number of registered voters in the country. According to a report by SBM Intelligence, which monitors sociopolitical and economic developments in Nigeria, 626 people were killed during the 2019 election cycle, starting with campaigns in 2018. The politically related violence reported in many states was in contrast to the relatively peaceful 2015 elections that brought Buhari into his first term in office. The national and state elections in February, March, and April 2019 contributed to the general insecurity across the country. Human Rights Watch interviewed 32 people, including voters, journalists, election observers, activists, and Independent National Electoral Commission officials in Rivers and Kano states, and documented 11 deaths specifically related to violent interference in the election process during the February 23 presidential election and subsequent state elections. “He should put these issues at the front and center of his second term agenda and urgently take concrete steps to improve respect for human rights.” “The lack of meaningful progress in addressing the prevalent political violence, as well as lack of accountability for rights abuses, marked Buhari’s first term in office,” said Anietie Ewang, Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch. Security forces have failed to respond effectively to threats to people’s lives and security. The election period included persistent attacks by factions of the insurgent group Boko Haram in the northeast increased communal violence between nomadic herdsmen and farmers spreading southward from north-central states and a dramatic uptick in banditry, kidnapping, and killings in the northwestern states of Kaduna, Katsina, and Zamfara. Buhari should take concrete steps to address the widespread political violence, and to ensure accountability for human rights abuses by soldiers and police as he begins his second term. (Abuja) – The Nigeria elections in 2019 that brought President Muhammadu Buhari back into office for a second term were marred by political violence, some of it by soldiers and police officers, Human Rights Watch said.
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