UK Threatens Electoral Act Violators With Visa Ban
Situation Room tasks Buhari on free, fair election
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
Ahead of Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections, the British government, has restated its resolve to impose visa ban and other sanctions on politicians, candidates and other promoters of hate speech and electoral violence in Nigeria.
Also, declaring election monitoring operations open at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja, yesterday, the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room urged President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that the agencies of government involved with the elections delivered on their responsibilities.
It said the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and National Communications Commission (NCC) as key stakeholders and drivers of BWAS should be made to deliver on their responsibilities during the elections.
The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catrionia Laing, who spoke at the formal opening of the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room located at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, expressed grave concern over the effects of the federal government’s new currency policy on the citizenry.
Lang, who expressed worry at the ripple effects of the new naira policy, tasked the federal government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on the need to make available, sufficient currency for Nigerian citizens with a view to mitigate against the hardship being faced by Nigerians across the country.
“It’s really heartbreaking, I think and the suffering that is going on. And we are also imploring that the maximum that can be done to enable people to access cash is done before the election, as you say, because there’s so much at stake. Of course, there’s some Supreme Court rules today. So, it’ll be interesting to see what that judgment is.
“On violence and hate speech, I completely concur. It’s a crime and there should be consequences. People may have heard me say this yesterday on my various interviews that the UK has just issued a statement, our Minister for International Development in Africa, Andrew Mitchell, stating very clearly that we monitor this very carefully.
“And anybody who’s found to be inciting violence, including through hate speech, as well as of course actually conducting violent acts could be subject to a travel visa ban to the UK. We also have potential sanctions through our human rights levers. So, we are watching carefully we have used these tools in the past. We don’t disclose who is on our list for data protection reasons.
“But I can tell people and rest assured we are watching very, very closely. So, that’s our contribution that we would like to make to holding people’s feet to the fire on this very important issue of hate speech and incitement to violence, because everyone must be able to conduct the election and vote for who they want peacefully without any fear or intimidation,” she said.
Earlier, Convener of Situation Room, Ms. Ene Obi, who spoke on behalf of the over 70 Civil Society Organisations working in support of credible and transparent elections in Nigeria, frowned at the prevailing security threats trailing the elections.
According to her, “the Election Security Threat Assessment produced by Situation Room presents a grim picture of the elections. The security situation across the country appears to be deteriorating as we enter the election week. The South-East region, in particular, has witnessed escalation of violence with the disruption of INEC Adhoc staff training in Nnewi South LGA of Anambra State by hoodlums, and attacks on police stations in Oyi and Idemili North LGAs of the State.
“In spite of this grim security outlook, the Nigeria Police, which is the lead agency on election security, is yet to present a clear and detailed election security plan to the public. The Situation Room welcomes the announcement that about 400,000 security personnel will be deployed for the election.
“However, we call on the leadership of the Nigeria Police to provide additional information regarding the deployment plans, especially the contact details of the commanding officers at zonal, state, area, and divisional levels to enable stakeholders liaise with these officials.
“The Nigeria Police and other security agencies have a primary responsibility to safeguard election officials as well as other election stakeholders, including voters, polling agents, election observers, the media and service providers.”
Executive Director of Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), Clement Nwankwo, who spoke on the new currency policy, argued that Nigeria might be forced to be changing its currency every election year going by the posture of the present administration on vote buying.
He, however, tasked President Buhari on the need to prioritize the Election Offences Commission Bill which encapsulates various concerns on vote buying among others.
