2023: Coalition Of CSOs Charge Judiciary, Law Agencies On Selective Enforcement

A Coalition of Civil Society Organisations has charged the judiciary and law enforcement agencies to avoid selective enforcement of the law and live up to their duty to uphold democracy and wellbeing of the nation, without what they described as "there should be no sacred cow."

The coalition known as Community of Practice Against Mass Atrocities, includes Global Rights, Center for Community Excellence, AfriPeace, Sesor Empowerment Foundation, Alliances for Africa, We the People and Srarina Initiative for peace and Justice and Development, gave the charge on Monday in Abuja,  at a high level meeting on Monitoring, Documenting and Taking Action on Election Atrocities and Hate Speech in Lagos and SouthEastern states. 

Team Lead, Srarina Initiative for Peace, Justice and Development Redzie Jugo, stated that the culture of impunity has made it impossible to bring to book perpetrators of crimes,of hate speech and fake news making it possible for other crimes to grow especially during the electioneering  periods.

Jugo said, "Nigerian justice system is key to addressing the menace, only impunity has been the fertile ground upon which hate speech, fake news and other forms of electoral atrocities have flourished.

"We therefore call on the judiciary and law enforcement agencies to act in the interest of democracy and the wellbeing of our nation. There should not be a sacred cow.

"Contextualizing the 2023 elections within Nigeria's ongoing endemic insecurity, the proliferation of arms and light weapons, .....decades of maladministration of critical institutions including  the justice system, readily flags the amber that the upcoming election will be highly volatile.

"Nigeria is already suffering from multidimensional form of violence,added to the endemic sufferings already  enduring from the economy and weak institutions, we cannot add an extra layer of gunpowder of fake news and hate speech to our polity, it will combust."

Speaking further on the volatile nature of the country, as the 2023 elections draws closer, Jugo disclosed, "There is an uncontrolled access to small arms and light weapons , increasing the odds that violence could get deadly.

"Already with the atrocities tracking conducted by Global Rights, 155 persons including INEC have been killed and INEC offices burnt in recent times.

"Within the last four years, there have been 50 attacks on INEC facilities with Imo having the highest number with 11 incidents, followed by Osun 7, Akwa-Ibom 5, Enugu 5 amongst others.

"We call on the government to secure vulnerable communities as highlighted in several reports.

"If elections do not take place in these communities, or if marred by violence, then the elections cannot be considered to be free and fair and would have failed irrespective of who wins."