By Sam Ogidan and Innocent Odoh, Abuja
Following the general elections that held nationwide, facts have emerged that violence which broke out on the Election Day, March 28, killed at least 100 people, injuring many others.
This was disclosed by the Director of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Ms Idayat Hassan, while making analysis on the post-election outcomes during a debate organized by the Speakers Corner Trust Limited in Abuja yesterday.
During the debate entitled “Elections 2015: An Analysis’’ Idayat also revealed that there were reports of pre-election violence, which killed over 50 people according to the reports from the National Human rights Commission, and other deaths which were not officially reported, adding that more of the violence was recorded in the South East, South South and some parts of the South West geopolitical zones.
She further decried the low voter turnout in the 2015 polls saying only about 31.7 million Nigerians came out for accreditation during the presidential election but more than 2.3 million people did not return to cast their votes.
She stressed that there were glaring cases of snatching of ballot boxes by politicians in their desperate bid to capture power as well as burning of INEC offices and killing their staff in the process across the country.
She pointed out that one of the greatest challenges of Nigerian politics is the issue of identity, where people vote on religious backgrounds and ethnicity.
Speaking on the “Surprises and Intrigues” of the elections, Independent Consultant and Conflict Transformation Expert, Dr. Dayo Kusa, said the 2015 General elections were quite different from any other that had ever been conducted before in Nigeria, being the first of its kind to actually let the will of the people prevail.
She said it was the first time an incumbent president will accept defeat, which Jonathan did, and saved the nation from the looming chaos that might have come up had he insisted on sticking to the position.