SERAP- ICC should probe APC, PDP officials over election violence

 

   Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has called on the International Criminal Court, ICC, to investigate the persistent crimes of corruption, violence, and killings during elections in Nigeria, most recently in Bayelsa and Kogi States, particularly, involvement of All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, officials.

    SERAP also urged the court to probe whether the repeated failure of the Nigerian authorities to address the crimes amount to violence against Nigerians and crimes against humanity within the jurisdiction of the ICC.

    In the petition by Deputy Director of SERAP, Kolawole Oluwadare, dated November 16th, 2019, addressed to Mrs. Fatou Bensouda, Prosecutor, ICC, “to push for those suspected to be responsible for these crimes, mostly security officials, officials of the two main political parties, APC and the PDP and other actors who contributed to the corruption, violence and killings during the elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states, and are therefore complicit in the crimes, to be tried by the ICC.”

   In the petition signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organization said: “The events in the Bayelsa and Kogi elections suggest criminal conduct within the jurisdiction of the ICC. If the results of the preliminary investigation suggest that further investigation is warranted, the ICC should work with Nigerian anti-corruption agencies on the matter. Election-related corruption and violence are not just minor infractions, they suggest serious crimes against Nigerians, in particular, crimes against humanity.”   According to organisation, “In the ICC case on Kenyan election violence, the culture of impunity was considered one reason why violence had been ‘normalised’ as a means of political struggle.

  We therefore urge you to investigate allegations of corruption, violence and killings in Bayelsa and Kogi elections, if the ICC is to contribute to preventing escalations in future elections, including the general elections scheduled to hold in 2023. “The incidents of bribery and corruption, intimidation and violence witnessed in Bayelsa and Kogi States also strike at the integrity of the democratic process and seriously undermine President Muhammadu Buhari’s oft-expressed commitment to fight corruption and end impunity of perpetrators.   “T

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