Nigeria Recorded 109 deaths Related to 2023 Elections, CDD Reveals

Michael Olugbode in Abuja

No fewer than 109 election-related deaths have been recorded across Nigeria in the build-up to the 2023 general election, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) has revealed.

CDD, a pro-democracy think-thank, challenged tasked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to learn key lessons learnt from its conduct of the presidential poll of February 25 to improve the conduct of the state elections.

This was contained in a statement the CDD released on its website yesterday, noting that its tracker recorded the deaths between January 1 and 10 March.

In its statement, the CDD revealed that highly contested elections in these states “are likely to be sites for election-violence that includes voter intimidation, ballot box snatching and the destruction of election materials.”

It added that states that would hold gubernatorial polls with the most incidents of political violence since January 1 according to the Nigeria Election Violence Tracker are Lagos, Rivers, Kano, Delta and Anambra, with Kano the state with the most recorded deaths as a consequence at 20.

According to the organisation, Osun, Imo and Ebonyi have also seen a number of incidents in the past three months that could disrupt state house of assembly polls taking place in the state.