Group Calls for Post-election Violence Data, Says Compliance Not Peace Accord is Needed

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

Judging the spate of electoral violence in the post-2023 general election, a group, the Kimpact Kimpact Development Initiative, in collaborating with UKAID has decried the signing of Peace Accord as measure to curb the menace by political contestants, and called for the use of Compliance Accord.

 Kimpact Development Initiative Team Lead, Mr. Biodun Idowu, who stated this in Abuja during the unveiling of a comprehensive report on the 2023 elections, said despite voter education, more cases of violence were recorded, hence the need for data to foster legislation and consequences.

Laying emphasis on the decentralisation of voting, which he said should be considered moving forwards, Idowu said not only the party chairmen should sign the accords, but the party itself and all contestants, particularly those campaigning at the grassroots.

According to him, “We don’t need a Peace Accord, but a Compliance Accord. That is the key, and that is one thing we need to begin to look into. Beyond the candidate signing Peace Accord, we want to see more of party relationship.

“So we need to take it down to the grassroots because it has to go beyond the candidate. The accord needs to be decentralised and taken down to the grassroots.

“With the data we have in ground, it would have been more than that. But with what we have at the moment, we didn’t see any significant change in terms of deterrence.

“Thirty-six hours after the Peace Accord, we had a lot of cases of violence in the South-east region and in Kano, and like I said, during the first Peace Accord signing between September 29, 2022 and January 2023, cases of electoral violence increased by 102.

“So it means that the Peace Accord was being signed at the top, but it is at the local government level that most of this violence takes place. So we haven’t seen that effectiveness. The whole process needs to be reworked, and if it is called a Peace Accord, it must be reiterated that election is not a war. The process needs to be rethought, reviewed and reworked.”