With four days to go of the off-cycle elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kebbi states respectively, Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy and Development, FENRAD, a human and environmental rights advocacy group duly accredited to monitor elections in Nigeria, has been following all the latest trends and developments, with keener and particular focus on Imo State, where security and rights breaches are playing with exercise at the polls yet to commence.
The Foundation observes, however, that the Imo political landscape ahead of the said exercise leaves much to be desired. The cringeworthy obsession with power crassly displayed lately by the government in “power,” including its alleged collusion with law enforcement authorities to cower citizens are negative pointers to what is to be expected if not checked now.
The case of Comrade Joe Ajaero, unionist and leader of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), is, to say the least, regrettable. It is unfortunate that the state government, through its own release, tried to associate Ajaero’s brutalization and dehumanization with state politics when indeed an industrial dispute was unarguably the case in Imo State. The fact that Ajaero was assailed and later assaulted by yet-to-be-identified hoodlums inserts a question mark into all democratic claims of the Nigerian state. It is annoying that President Bola Tinubu has yet to condemn this barbaric display.
While it is pertinent that the state police commissioner, given allegations of meddling in partisan affairs, be redeployed, the most important thing to do, and which will enthrone justice in the long run, is getting all those thugs apprehended and prosecuted. It is horrible that Ajaero’s town in Emekuku was besieged by personnel of the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, allegedly accompanied by political thugs, even while Ajaero was not there. This further reveals how ambitious and power-drunk certain political actors can be.
The Foundation observes that with voter apathy likely to increase following the events of 2023 general elections, torture and thuggery, like the one meted out to Ajaero, could further widen apathy gap. For the sake of peace and to further boost election security provision, the Imo State Police Command owes the Imo public a detailed explanation of its business at Emekuku, Ajaero’s home town, where its personnel were deployed.
Lastly, the Foundation would be exploring other legal alternatives within the facilities of the law, including deploying all legal arsenals within its reach to see that justice is dispensed and done, and that the rights to: organize; work and receive commensurate pay; and legitimate protest, as part of the ILO Conventions to which Nigeria is a signatory and state party, MUST be protected at all times.
While redeployment of the police commissioner is welcome development, a greater responsibility lies with INEC and the federal government to up their game and ensure that the off-season elections record significant improvement upon the failures of the last season. That is what this off-season requires, not consmetic reforms and empty promises.
Signed:
Comrade Nelson Nnanna Nwafor
Executive Director
Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy & Development (FENRAD Nigeria
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