YIAGA Africa has condemned the violence and the killings that erupted on Saturday in Omuo Ekiti during the Ekiti East State House of Assembly bye-election.
The condemnation was made in a statement by Cynthia Mbamalu, the Director of Programmes for the YIAGA Africa on Sunday.
According to the statement, YIAGA Africa posited that the Saturday violence and killings at Omuo Ekiti during the Ekiti East State House of Assembly bye-election held on Saturday is antithetical to the democratic rules of credible elections.
It maintained that unleashing of mayhem on the process, which resulted in the death of Nigerians performing their civic duty and gunshot wounds sustained by a serving NYSC member and a female police officer at their duty post, was an assault on democracy and the sanctity of life.
Continuing, “the YIAGA Africa condemns in its totality this onslaught on the election in Ekiti East State bye-election and the violence that has cost us innocent lives.
“No citizen deserves to die in the course of exercising their civic right and performing their civic responsibilities. The desperation of political actors to capture power, by all means, remains a threat to our electoral democracy”.
YIAGA also used the opportunity to affirm that no democracy can thrive if politicians circumvent the rule of law, deploy violence and other rigging tactics to win elections at all costs.
In the same vein, “YIAGA commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s decision to suspend the process indefinitely as credible elections cannot be conducted under a chaotic atmosphere”.
YIAGA also called on INEC and the Police to immediately investigate the electoral violence and prosecute everyone guilty of the electoral violence.
Packaged by Emmanuel Adeniran
