Civil society groups report 39 election day deaths in Nigeria

(Image credit: Pius Utomi Ekpei / Getty Images)

published 25 February 2019

Civil society groups are reporting that as many as 39 people died as a result of election day violence in Nigeria, per The New York Times.

Most of the violence occurred in the southern half of the country — including Lagos, the country's most populous city — where the tightly contested and delayed election featuring incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari and more than 70 challengers is even more hotly disputed, thanks to a larger opposition presence. There were also reports of violence in the northeast.

The Times reported that Clement Nwankwo, the executive director of the Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room — a coalition that has been monitoring the election — criticized Buhari at a press conference on Monday, arguing that the president's statements that vote-rigging would be punishable by death incited violence. Nwankwo also denounced the presence of the military personnel at polling stations, following their involvement in an election day shootout. He called for the U.K. and the U.S. to impose sanctions on politicians found to be responsible for any deaths.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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