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We Are All Guilty Of Election Violence-Lawmaker.


The Leader of the Senate, Yahaya Abdullahi, has hinted that the upper chamber of the National Assembly might  come up with a bill that will prescribe punishments for perpetrators of violence during elections.

Abdullahi stated this on Tuesday while contributing to a motion moved by Senator George Sekibo,  on the violence that rocked the governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states on November 16.

He warned that any politician, irrespective of his or her political parties, could be a victim of violence during elections.

The Senate majority leader said this as the United Nations condemned the killings during the governorship election in Kogi State.

Also on Tuesday, the House of Representatives said it would investigate the violence during the governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states.

No fewer than six people were killed during the governorship election in Kogi State. On November 18, a Peoples Democratic Party women leader, Salome Abuha, was burnt to death when thugs set her home at Ochadamu in the Ofu Local Area of the state on fire.

At the Senate plenary on Tuesday, Abdullahi said there was the need for the two main political parties in the Senate to work together and save the nation’s electoral process.

He  said,  “It is important if the Minority Leader and I can come up with a by-partisan bill to look at the punishments for electoral violence.

“Let us  see how we can raise a law to effectively tackle electoral violence because electoral violence knows no partisanship. All politicians on all sides are guilty.

“Electoral  violence started from the beginning of our democratic journey in 1999, but it’s getting worse by the day. There were pockets of violence in other republics, but they were not as terrible as what we have today. If we don’t curb this phenomenon, it’s going to be dangerous for our country,” he added.