The Nigeria Civil Society, Situation Room, has asked INEC to discountenance areas where violence marred the Kano State supplementary elections and declare a winner for the polls.
In a statement by its spokesman, Clement Nwankwo, the Situation Room urged the electoral umpire to proceed with declarations on the basis of polls already concluded.
Situation Room condemned the actions of political parties in the run-up to the supplementary elections and on the election day proper.
The group noted in its report that massive thugs were deployed to intimidate voters, observers and even INEC officials around polling units in Gama Ward.
Situation Room also reported that there was a high deployment of unaccredited party agents to polling units, noting that these agents aided in the disruption of the voting process.
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Speaking further on the situation of things in Kano while the supplementary polls were underway, the group said it was concerned that abuses of electoral processes and violent incidents were recorded despite the deployment of top-level officials.
The group said, “It is therefore ironic and curious that this level of violence and political thuggery will occur with this quantum of senior police officers deployed,” adding that “Situation Room has always advocated against redeployment of Commissioners of Police ahead of elections”.
Situation Room also stated that there were high incidences of vote buying facilitated by thugs and party agents.
“This trend was seen particularly in Gama Ward of Nasarawa Local Government. There were also cases of attempted inducement of observers with cash,” Situation Room stated.
In its final analysis, the Situation Room said the country is in no mood to accept the conduct of another supplementary election, hence, the INEC should declare a winner based on polls already conducted in the state.
