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During the 2003 election period, scores of incidents of violence were reported across the country. Human Rights Watch visited four states in the south and the southeast, regions where some of the worst violence was reported. The incidents presented in this report only account for a small proportion of those that occurred. Human Rights Watch collected numerous eye-witness testimonies of these and other incidents, which form the basis for most of the information summarized below.

Bayelsa State

Bayelsa State, in the Niger delta, saw a high level of violence during the elections, as well as widespread intimidation and fraud. In many areas, polling booths were not even set up; instead, intimidation took place at voting collation centers, from which materials were to be distributed to the individual polling stations in advance of the elections. Some of the state governor’s close political associates, including his appointed state commissioners (the equivalent of ministers at state level), had been directly implicated in cases of political violence and killing even before the elections began.¹⁷

Clash in Nembe (Bassambiri)¹⁸

The hometown of UNPP governorship candidate George Fente was the site of one of the deadlier clashes during the election period. On the evening of April 10, UNPP and PDP political thugs clashed in Bassambiri, in Nembe local government area. Beyond each side’s claim of at least a dozen fatal casualties, their accounts of the events of April 10 and 11 have little in common: each side claimed that their intent on that day was to make peace, that they were unarmed, and that the other side was the aggressor. Given the duration of the fighting and accounts of shooting throughout the night of April 10 and into April 11, the widespread availability of arms in the area, and the number of deaths recorded on each side, both sides almost certainly had access to and used firearms provided by their political patrons.

In very early April 2003, there had been fighting in Bassambiri between PDP and UNPP members. Some PDP members had fled the community and had then attempted to re-enter it by force. About a week before the elections, in an attempt to resolve that tension, local community leaders organized a committee of eight representatives of the main political parties, who met on April 8 and agreed that the PDP members who had fled would be allowed to come back peacefully. Representatives of all the parties, including George Fente and local PDP leaders, signed the undertaking.

However, on April 10, two days before the election, serious violence broke out again between UNPP and PDP supporters. As Bassambiri is a relatively remote community, many of its residents also live and work in Port Harcourt. Around April 9 and 10, these residents started returning to Bassambiri, some of them intending only to pick up their voters’ cards in advance of the elections. In the early afternoon of April 10, five or six speedboats full of UNPP supporters departed from Port Harcourt bound for Nembe. George Fente saw them off from the waterside; he was expected to join them later for a political rally in Bassambiri. The boats arrived in Bassambiri at around 5.30 p.m. Other UNPP supporters who had earlier fled to Ogbolomabiri also crossed back into Bassambiri. In the early evening, many of these UNPP supporters gathered in front of George Fente’s Bassambiri residence. According to PDP accounts, some UNPP supporters had paraded through town breaking bottles, destroying PDP signboards, and making threatening and inflammatory statements, such as “the cemetery needs to be expanded,” and telling PDP members: “this will be your last day.” UNPP members, on the other hand, claimed their intentions were peaceful.

A confrontation between UNPP and PDP members began in the center of town and by around 7.30 p.m., the first shots were fired. Both sides reported that the regular police, who were unarmed, and the paramilitary mobile police, who were armed and had been especially dispatched to the area for the elections, made some early attempts to calm the commotion. However, when fighting broke out, the regular police fled and the mobile police failed to intervene. Continuous gunfire was heard for several hours, and sporadic gunfire continued through the night and into the next morning. The fighting eventually died down after soldiers were deployed to Bassambiri in the early afternoon of April 11.

PDP leaders in Bassambiri reported the deaths of nine of their members and listed the first names of five others who received bullet wounds. George Fente claimed that twenty-two UNPP supporters were killed on April 10, listing ten of them by name.¹⁹ A local human rights organization confirmed the deaths of thirteen people known in Bassambiri, and reported that several other men were killed but their identity was not known.²⁰

Eight UNPP supporters were arrested as a result of the fighting and were charged on May 7 with murder, assault and other offences. Fente himself was also considered wanted by the police and went into hiding for a short time. Seven of the UNPP members were released on bail on July 16, 2003, and the eighth was discharged. No PDP member was detained or charged in connection with this incident.

Both Governor Alamieyeseigha and George Fente reportedly visited Abuja to speak with the federal police headquarters and to attempt to influence the course of the investigation into the Bassambiri crisis.²¹ As the UNPP’s gubernatorial candidate in Bayelsa, Fente filed a petition before the electoral tribunal challenging Governor Alamieyeseigha’s election victory. However, he dropped the petition in May and told Human Rights Watch that he had done so with the understanding that the police would in turn drop the charges against his supporters who at that time were still in detention.²² When his supporters were finally released on bail in July, they believed the cases against them would not be pursued.²³

Other clashes in Bayelsa State

On April 19, at least ten people were killed in a clash between PDP and ANPP supporters in Oporoma, the local government headquarters of Southern Ijaw local government. Seven of the victims were from Angiama, the hometown of the ANPP gubernatorial candidate, Millionaire Abowei. The clash occurred when young men from Angiama, which served as the center for distribution and collation of election materials, came to Oporoma to demand the release of voting materials for their area. ²⁴

In Sagbama local government, on April 12, opposition party supporters and other disgruntled voters burned the residence of the local transition committee chairman and the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), along with about a dozen vehicles, in protest at reports of rigging by the ruling party the night before.²⁵

Rivers State

Violence and blatant rigging were widely used in Rivers State to secure victory at the elections, primarily by the ruling PDP, but also by other parties. A journalist who was in Rivers State on April 19 explained: “It was a travesty. I didn’t see a single vote legitimately cast all day, indeed I only saw voting at all in one location [...] PDP agents were stuffing boxes there […] [INEC officials] in another area said they didn’t hold voting because results sheets had been stolen from them at gunpoint, directly in front of police.”²⁶ Improbably high voter turnouts were recorded at each stage of the elections, despite the lack of elections in most places and widespread opposition boycotts of the polls on the second and third dates.

The police were widely reported to have supported the PDP’s interests in Rivers State. In addition to numerous allegations that they actively colluded with the PDP to assist them in winning the elections, they failed to take action to prevent violence when specific cases were brought to their attention, as illustrated by this example from a human rights activist in Port Harcourt:

In Ogbio-Akpor local government, on April 19, the former local government chairman, who was also a candidate, was caught early that morning at the local government INEC office. Soldiers searched the car and found weapons, including automatic rifles. The current chairman of the caretaker committee was also there […] The Assistant Commissioner of Police came, spoke to the soldiers, and they [the former chairman and his associates] were released right there. That same evening, the former chairman and the chairman of the caretaker committee became returning officers at the local government collation centre, telling the mobile police who could come in. Lots of people were beaten.²⁷

When Human Rights Watch spoke with the state Commissioner of Police, he claimed that there had not been any incidents of serious violence and that there was no disruption of voting. In response to questions about specific cases documented by Human Rights Watch, he asked why these “minor cases” were of any interest.²⁸ The chief press secretary to the Rivers state government told Human Rights Watch that there may have been isolated cases of violence, but that generally the elections were not violent. He described Rivers State as the safest state in Nigeria.²⁹

Killing in Etche

On the morning of April 12, an armed ANPP supporter called Mwuzi was killed by PDP supporters in Etche local government, outside the local government headquarters compound where INEC was preparing materials for distribution. He was killed in the context of a dispute between ANPP and PDP supporters over whether INEC could distribute a photocopy of the election results form rather than the original. An election observer who witnessed the killing reported:

They just shot him, right at him. He died right there, we all saw it […] The PDP came in two buses, with sophisticated weapons like pistols and rifles. Every one of them had guns. The ANPP thugs were about five. They had guns too; even the one who was killed had a gun. […] Up until now, no one has been arrested.³⁰

Human Rights Watch spoke with a representative of the PDP youth wing in a village in Etche local government area. He reported that he and other youths in the village were promised money, cars, and trips to the United States in exchange for their efforts to “canvass the vote” for the PDP, although he denied that they were given any weapons.³¹

Violence in Ikwerreland

Many incidents of violence, including several killings, were reported in different parts of Ikwerreland, which covers four local government areas.

Thankgod Nweanyi, the ANPP’s local chapter chairman, was killed by a mobile policeman at a polling booth in the village of Ubimini, in Emohua local government area, on April 12; two other men were seriously injured. An eye- witness identified by name the mobile police officer who killed Thankgod Nweanyi and reported that the INEC supervisor for the ward was in the vehicle with the police officer at the time; other eyewitnesses disagreed about whether there was a second person in the vehicle.³²

Election observers reported that in Rumuochi, also in Emohua local government, a clash between PDP and ANPP supporters on April 19 resulted in at least nine injuries, five on the side of the PDP and four on the side of the ANPP.³³

Several people were killed or injured by stray bullets during shoot-outs by party supporters and in some cases by the police. In an incident at a polling booth in Omagwa, in Ikwerre local government, on April 19, an ANPP supporter, Charles Asuwo, died on the spot in a shoot-out between PDP thugs and the police, and around six people were injured.³⁴

There was further violence at a distribution centre in Omagwa, following an argument between PDP and ANPP supporters who complained that the election result sheets had not been distributed. At least one ANPP member was injured by PDP supporters, who fired shots and left with the election result sheets.³⁵

A local non-governmental organization which monitored the elections reported several other violent incidents in Ikwerreland. Human Rights Watch has not been able to verify each of these cases. However, if confirmed, the number and patterns of these incidents are of serious concern. The organization’s report describes the following cases, among others:

• In Egbeda, in Emohua local government area, ANPP member Amos Akpalu was shot dead on April 12.
• On the same day, in Omagwa, in Ikwerre local government area, two men, including the local ward secretary of the ANPP, were beaten and injured by PDP supporters believed to be acting on behalf of the PDP councillorship candidate for the area. One man was also shot dead by the police; it was not clear whether he was deliberately targeted or hit by a stray bullet as police fired into the air.
• On April 19, in Emohua local government area, the houses of several prominent ANPP officials were damaged, and one man reportedly died after being shot by the police. A woman who complained about the absence of electoral materials was shot dead in Ndele, also in Emohua; the identity of the perpetrator was not confirmed.
• In April 19 in Rukpokwu, in Obio/Akpor local government area, at least two men were beaten by the police after community members complained that voting materials were not available.
• Several cases of police ill-treatment were reported from different locations in Port Harcourt local government area.³⁶

Violent intimidation in Ogoniland

In Bodo community, Gokana local government, the wife of ANPP senatorial candidate Ben Naanen was reportedly held at gunpoint by PDP thugs and forced to vote for a rival candidate to her husband during the National Assembly elections on April 12.³⁷

On April 12, the day of the National Assembly elections, an activist of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) was abducted by a group of youths; he was released the next day.³⁸

An independent observer who was taking detailed notes at a voting collation center in Ogoniland on April 13 had his notes and satellite telephone taken from him by unidentified youths at gunpoint later that night.³⁹

Other attacks and intimidation in Rivers State

There were a number of other incidents in which election observers were intimidated and harassed in Rivers State. A TMG observer at a polling station on Ekwerre Road in Port Harcourt reported: “Three young men came down from a bus with automatic weapons. They took away my notes and checklist, and shot their guns very close to my feet. I was lucky.” When he narrated the incident to an acquaintance in the state police command, it was merely recommended that he “call the private radio stations that were broadcasting some of this information.”⁴⁰ The staff of an Abuja-based conflict resolution organization reported that its monitors in Ogu/Bolo local government were told by PDP thugs that if they valued their lives, they should leave the area.⁴¹

Some observers were prevented from accessing distribution and collation centers. A human rights activist who was coordinating the TMG observers in Rivers State reported that during the April 12 elections, more than 80 per cent of the TMG observers were not able to obtain the election results because thugs barred their access.⁴² In Port Harcourt local government area, a witness who accompanied international election observers reported seeing about a dozen unidentified young men armed with locally-made guns carting away election materials from a polling booth while around seven police officers looked on.⁴³

The day after the National Assembly elections, opposition parties organized a peaceful march to hand a petition to the INEC representative in Port Harcourt, which was disrupted by police shooting to disperse them and arresting many of the protesters.⁴⁴

A human rights organization reported that non-PDP candidates contesting seats for the state house of assembly were accused by their PDP rivals of disrupting the elections; when they turned up on May 3, several were reportedly beaten. Among them was Shubby Ben Wilson, a candidate for the AD, who was reportedly beaten with horse whips and gun butts and sustained head injuries.⁴⁵

Incidents of violence were reported in Amadi-ama and other locations on the outskirts of Port Harcourt. Many people were temporarily displaced from Amadi-ama after it came under attack by armed PDP supporters on the eve of the National Assembly elections, on April 11. About fifteen PDP armed supporters arrived early in the morning and started shooting at random. As people fled for their lives, several were injured, and many homes were destroyed; a local human rights organization claimed the attackers used mortars.⁴⁶

Many other incidents of violence in Rivers State were reported by election observers, non-governmental organizations, political activists, and others. These included incidents where members of the security forces used excessive force, for example in Port Harcourt on April 19, when soldiers whipped ANPP supporters who were protesting at the INEC office.⁴⁷ A petition by the ANPP in Rivers State submitted to the INEC Chairman also contains examples of violent intimidation and other abuses by the PDP during the National Assembly elections.⁴⁸

Delta State

The violence in Delta State before and during the elections is documented in earlier Human Rights Watch reports⁴⁹, so is not described again in detail here. As Nigeria’s most important oil-producing state, the race for government positions in Delta State was even more desperate, and the financial benefits of gaining political office even higher, than in other states. Not surprisingly, therefore, it experienced a high level of violence before, during and since the elections. Not all of this violence was directly related to the elections, but the elections contributed to a heightening of existing tensions in the area.

The prospect of elections, and disagreements over ward boundaries and representation in government, had already triggered serious inter-communal violence around the town of Warri in the months preceding the elections, between January and March 2003. The conflict was in part between the Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo ethnic groups, and in part between armed groups and the security forces. It was against this highly volatile backdrop that elections were held in April 2003, without any of the communities’ grievances having been satisfactorily addressed by the government. Each of the communities, claiming marginalization and discrimination, seized upon the elections to agitate for past injustices to be redressed. Many called for the elections to be postponed, and until the last minute there were doubts as to whether they would be held. A similar scenario was repeated one year later, with further incidents of violence around Warri in January, February and March 2004, exacerbated by the looming local government elections. Eventually, the Delta State government decided to suspend local government elections in Warri in March 2004, provoking further angry reactions from some of the communities concerned.⁵⁰

Local and international observers of the 2003 elections concurred that in most areas in Delta State, the level of fraud and violence, most of it carried out by PDP supporters, totally discredited the election process; yet, as elsewhere, official election results were announced, and the PDP state governor was re-elected. In some locations, there was not even any pretence at staging elections. For example, many polling stations in Warri did not open on April 12; of those that did, several had to stop the elections soon after they started, and postpone them to the following day. The TMG reported that in Ughelli, angry youths burnt down the INEC office in protest at the postponement of elections.⁵¹ In other locations, armed thugs snatched ballot boxes or vandalized election materials. An election observer in Warri described vehicles full of PDP thugs screeching into view at polling stations, large numbers of youths jumping out and leaving the doors open to show that the vehicles were full of guns and ammunition. The thugs then stood over voters, asking them who they would be voting for. Some voters were so frightened that they replied: “who do you want us to vote for?” Many others simply did not vote.⁵²

Most of the violence in Delta State was carried out by PDP supporters. However, opposition party supporters were also reported to have engaged in violence and intimidation, as were groups of armed youths affiliated to particular ethnic groups, rather than political parties. For example, on April 11, on the eve of the National Assembly elections in Koko, the headquarters of Warri north local government area, Ijaw militia launched an attack in which at least one government soldier and perhaps tens of civilians were killed; they also destroyed around fifty buildings, including the local government secretariat.⁵³

On May 2 and 3, there was a confrontation between armed Ijaws and the navy in Warri, and armed youths tried to disrupt the state house of assembly elections. Several Ijaws were reportedly killed by the security forces.⁵⁴ At least eight other people were reported to have died in clashes between political thugs in several locations, including Okpe and Burutu, during the state house of assembly elections.⁵⁵

Imo State

Widespread rigging and armed intimidation at polling booths were reported by independent observers in Imo State. As in other southeastern states where the Igbo ethnic group forms a majority, the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) presented a strong challenge to the ruling PDP in the state. APGA was cast as a primarily Igbo party, which put forward as its presidential candidate Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the general who led the southeastern secession attempt during the Biafran civil war of the late 1960s. APGA, ANPP and other opposition parties organized to boycott the elections after the first day, but incidents of violence and intimidation continued on the later days, instigated primarily by PDP supporters but in some cases involving opposition party supporters too.

Killing of Onyewuchi Iwuchukwu and other abuses by PDP supporters in Ikeduru local government

On the evening of April 19, in Amaimo, Ikeduru local government, Onyewuchi Iwuchukwu, an ANPP member, was shot in front of his family by PDP supporters associated with the PDP’s local chairmanship candidate, Samuel Anyanwu, known as Samdaddy. He died on his way to the hospital. Witnesses were able to identify several of the perpetrators by name, including the man who fired the shot which killed him, alleged to be the younger brother of Samuel Anyanwu and also a PDP supporter.

The warning signs began on April 12. At the polling booth, on April 12, Iwuchukwu was involved in an altercation with PDP supporters. One of them, Jophet Duru, the personal assistant to the former transitional local government committee chairman, reportedly threatened him and said: “This is the age your father died. You will also die at this age.” On the same day, Jophet Duru in the company of other PDP supporters was seen pointing out Iwuchukwu’s house.⁵⁶

 On April 19, Iwuchukwu was involved in a dispute between ANPP and PDP agents and supporters over whether the ballots would be counted at the polling booth or at the collation center. Soon after the dispute, a group of thugs led by a PDP supporter, Emmanuel Alaribe, arrived in two vehicles; they asked where Iwuchukwu was, but he had already left. They then attacked another ANPP agent, Anthony Akuneho Koga, with machetes; he fell down and lost consciousness. The PDP thugs then left with the ballot box.⁵⁷ A witness described how the PDP thugs tracked down Iwuchukwu at his home:

After we came back home, one of the PDP thugs, Julian Onyejiuwa, passed by on a bike. Less than five minutes later, at about 7.30 p.m., a bus came by with thugs, including this Julian. This bus was filled. The people came down from the bus; they surrounded everybody and shot into the air. I could identify about four of them, Kelechi Anyanwu, Jude Akaronye, Anthony Mka and Ndidi Ugwuezuoke. Ndidi pointed at him [Onyewuchi] and said: “Look at him! Look at him!” Then Kelechi, the younger brother of Samdaddy, shot him on the right side of the stomach; the bullet came out the left side. He [Onyewuchi] then tried to escape; they shot at him again in the left arm, then he fell down.[…] Some people carried Onyewuchi to the hospital, but on the way he died […] They arrested Kelechi on Sunday, then released him three days later.⁵⁸

A family member reported the case to the police:

I brought them [the police] to Samdaddy’s house to make arrests. There, they didn’t even know the boy was dead; the door was open and they were all there drinking. Ndidi was there. When he saw me he ran away. They all did, including Anthony and Jude, except Kelechi. The police took him and moved out immediately […]

When we arrived there, I made a statement. […] The IPO [investigative police officer] told me to make a strong move [to push the case forward quickly], otherwise a higher instruction might come from above. After three days (on April 23) they released him. I kept asking the IPO to come and investigate – he never did […] Immediately after Kelechi was released, we knew it. I went to the IPO and he explained that he had an order from above.⁵⁹

Had the police pursued an earlier case of violence at the polling booths on April 12, Iwuchukwu’s killing might have been averted. An ANPP polling agent at a different polling booth in Ikeduru local government reported that a group of armed PDP supporters, including two of those named by witnesses as being present when Iwuchukwu was shot a week later, arrived at the polling booth. The ANPP agent said that when he resisted their attempt to take the ballot box, they started shooting into the air. One of them pointed a gun at him, saying “this is the stubborn one,” and shot towards him once; the bullet grazed the top of his head. He reported the case to the state commissioner of police: “He told his men to arrest these boys. The next day he left for Abuja. One officer said to me there was no available vehicle…. Of course nothing happened in our case. Events overtake events. Only a couple of days later, Iwuchukwu was killed.”⁶⁰

When Human Rights Watch asked the Imo State deputy commissioner of police about the killing of Onyewuchi Iwuchukwu, he claimed that Kelechi and Iwuchukwu had been involved in a “prolonged fight. As far as I’m concerned it was not election related.” ⁶¹ He was unsure whether Kelechi had been charged to court or released without charge.

Samuel Anyanwu (or Samdaddy) claimed that his younger brother Kelechi had been accused of killing Iwuchukwu “to score a cheap political point.” He said Kelechi had been with him at the local government headquarters at the time of the shooting, and that he was not even a member of the PDP. Although he believed Iwuchukwu’s killing must have been election-related, he claimed he did not know the circumstances of the killing.⁶²

Samdaddy and the transition committee chairman, Charles Anukwa, were also alleged to have been involved in other abuses against ANPP members who protested against PDP attempts to rig the elections. An ANPP agent reported to the police an incident which occurred the day after the National Assembly elections, when he had tried to prevent PDP supporters from taking ballot boxes away from a voting centre. On April 13, he was attacked by three people, including Jude Akoronye (who was also named in the killing of Onyewuchi Iwuchukwu) and Emmanuel Alaribe (named in the attack on Anthony Akuneho Koga). They took him to the house of Samuel Anyanwu:

[They] attacked me at my father’s gate. They flogged me with a machete, brought out guns to shoot me, but later they tied my legs and hands and threw me inside of the boot of the bus they came in, and drove off to the house of Samuel Anyanwu …. There they threatened to kill me. They tortured me there and threatened all evils against me. They ask me to accept that from today I will no longer associate myself with Chief Vitalis Orikeze [the ANPP chairmanship candidate for Ikeduru local government] when for the safety of my life I said I will never come close to him they pushed me out of his gates after I have been injured seriously.⁶³

Another ANPP agent was briefly abducted on the orders of transition committee chairman Charles Anukwa, after protesting that Anukwa, accompanied by mobile policemen, took away ballot boxes from the vote collection centre, on April 19:

Dr Charles Anukwa Transition Chairman of Ikeduru arrived in his official vehicle escorted by a team of mobile policemen […] In all I saw about eight policemen. Dr Charles Anukwa started ordering the presiding officers to go into the bus with their ballot boxes. Some who hesitated had their boxes pushed into the bus with the aid of the policemen. I felt I can not watch them take away my booth’s ballot box though empty. Dr Charles Anukwa ordered a policeman to push me into the bus. I was forced into the bus believing they were going to the local government … The next thing I saw near Nkwo-Imo Market was a big gate that was opened I saw myself, in Samuel Anyanwu’s compound […] all the Presiding officers escorted by the Policemen into Samuel Anyanwu’s Parlour. I was kept under their security surveillance behind. […] it took the mercy of God for me to escape of the two gates that were guided by masked men. […] There were over a hundred youths armed in that compound that day.⁶⁴

The man reported the incident to the State Security Service (SSS) in Ikeduru, who said he should report it to INEC, which he did. He reported that since then, he had been threatened by Anukwa, “who continually warned that he will deal decisively with me.”⁶⁵

Attack against opposition candidate by PDP supporters and arson of local government headquarters by opposition supporters

On April 19, Tony Dimegwu, an ANPP state House of Assembly candidate from Ahiazu-Mbaise local government, was seriously injured by PDP supporters. According to an independent election observer, Dimegwu had heard rumors that PDP agents were carrying marked ballots into his constituency. When he challenged them, he was severely beaten by PDP thugs, who were reportedly led by Chidi Ibe, the local government’s transition committee chairman.⁶⁶ Dimegwu was taken to hospital, where his political associates said he remained for several days before being flown to Italy for more serious medical treatment resulting from his injuries.

An ANPP leader in Ahiazu-Mbaise local government described how Tony Dimegwu was attacked:

We met the transition committee chairman and a whole lot of [PDP] thugs. They had five or six vehicles […] Tony challenged them [the PDP supporters], saying he suspected they were carrying ballots or boxes. I saw Chidi Ibe hold Tony while boys were beating him, some with bare hands, some with irons [iron bars]. About five policemen were there with Ibe. I saw the police were just shooting into the air. Finally Tony fell down. I thought he was dead […] The PDP raced off and the police went with them. One other vehicle collected Tony; I learnt later they took him to hospital. I saw him two days later in hospital. He was still bad then, he couldn’t talk at all.⁶⁷

An ANPP member who witnessed the attack on Tony Dimegwu reported that Nnanna Raphael Igbokwe, the PDP candidate who eventually defeated Dimegwu in the state House of Assembly contest, was also present when Dimegwu was attacked, but could not confirm whether Igbokwe participated in the beating. When Human Rights Watch met Igbokwe, he denied having ever met or seen Dimegwu, although the two of them had been contesting the same seat. He refused to comment on the case.⁶⁸

After this incident, a rumor spread that Dimegwu had been shot. That evening, in reaction to this news, a group of ANPP and other opposition supporters went to the local government headquarters building and set fire to it, burning the front part of the building.

The police investigations into these two cases – the attack on Tony Dimegwu and the burning of the local headquarters – were transferred together from Imo state police to the multi-state Zone 9 Area Command based in Abia state.⁶⁹ A local ANPP leader had already been arrested by the next morning. Within a few days, four other local ANPP members and leaders were arrested. They were detained for five days, charged with conspiracy to commit arson, and granted bail.

In contrast, no PDP supporters were arrested in connection with the attack on Tony Dimegwu. Chidi Ibe, the transition committee chairman, was only questioned by the police. ANPP members claimed they gave the Zone 9 police about N5,000 (approximately U.S. $36) for transport to come to Mbaise to investigate the case, but that the police never came.⁷⁰ The Imo State deputy commissioner of police told Human Rights Watch that because the case had been transferred to Zone 9, he was not sure of the outcome.⁷¹

Other incidents

A report by the opposition party APGA on the presidential and governorship elections in Imo State stated that in Orsu local government, a group of armed men in three buses, carrying knives, cutlasses, axes and guns with live ammunition, drove around the area from the early morning and beat up several individuals who they believed did not support the PDP; and in Ndiawa, in Okigwe local government area, an ANPP supporter was beaten up after he refused a cash bribe to rig the election result. ⁷²

The same report noted that on April 19, in Umudi/Umuwala ward, in Nkwere local government, two bus loads of mobile police officers came to the polling booth and attempted to force voters to vote for the PDP. Agents from the opposition parties protested and scuffles broke out, during which ballot boxes and other materials were destroyed. The report also describes violence on April 19 in Ehime Mbano local government area, involving mobile police believed to be acting on behalf of a state government official; it states that several people were killed.⁷³

On April 19, a TMG observer in Ngor Okpala local government area witnessed five or six youths arrive at a polling booth in an unmarked bus and shoot into the air. There was only one unarmed police officer present who took no action. The presiding officer reported the incident to a team of roving armed police officers in the area, but no arrests were made.⁷⁴

The same observer reported that at another village in the same area, he encountered a roadblock set up by about thirty opposition youths armed with machetes. The youths had set up the roadblock to stop PDP and INEC officials who had allegedly cut short the elections and taken away the ballot boxes. “They saw the INEC sticker on my car [which I had because as a TMG observer I was INEC certified] and they dragged me out of my car…. We tried to explain who we were. Then a team of police came and intervened. They dispersed the youth without attempting to make any arrests. They couldn’t have really made arrests anyway as they were outnumbered.”⁷⁵

Ebonyi State

Ebonyi State was one of the states worst hit by election-related violence. Several serious incidents also took place in the days preceding the elections. The Civil Liberties Organisation recorded at least twelve cases of assassination of ANPP members in Ebonyi State, believed to have been orchestrated by the PDP, in March and April.⁷⁶ Among the victims was Anthony Nwodu, secretary of the ANPP in Ezza North local government, who was abducted from a police station by armed PDP supporters on March 21 and killed, allegedly in the house of a prominent PDP politician in the state. Two of the leaders of the group who allegedly killed Anthony Nwodu were charged with his murder.⁷⁷ A few days later, on March 27, Ikenna Ibor, a councillorship candidate for the ANPP, was shot dead at the ANPP secretariat in the state capital, Abakaliki. The incident was reported to the police, who confirmed that he had been shot in the stomach, thigh and hand, and stated they were investigating the case.⁷⁸

Some of the worst violence during the election period took place on April 12. A human rights organization in Ebonyi, which sent observers to all the polling booths in the state on the three days of the elections, reported: “No political party cared about democracy and democratic principles. The period leading to the elections was characterized by unprecedented violence by the ruling party (PDP) and its major opposition (ANPP) and all the other parties. All the elections were marred by thuggery, violence, killings, ballot box snatching, ballot box stuffing, under aged voting, intimidation, result falsification, arson and disenfranchisement of the electorate. INEC officials and security agents colluded with the ruling PDP and the Government. There were hardly any gubernatorial and presidential elections in the State as the other parties mostly boycotted the exercise to save the lives of their members and supporters.”⁷⁹ In a summary of its findings, the same human rights organization noted: “Violence and arson marred the conduct of elections in most places, especially in Afikpo North, Afikpo South, Ikwo, Ohaukwu and Ezza North L.G.[local government] Areas.”⁸⁰ Opposition parties claimed that deaths were recorded in seven local government areas during the National Assembly elections alone: Umuoghara, Ezza North, Ishielu, Afikpo North, Afikpo South, Ivo and Ohaozara.⁸¹

Violence in Ikwo local government

On April 23, there was a clash between ANPP and PDP supporters in Ikwo local government. A PDP supporter, Paul Ezeka, was badly beaten and died within a few days. Silas Njakka, the former vice chairman of Ikwo local government and a member of the ANPP, was arrested in connection with the murder on April 25. He claimed that the day after his arrest, his filling station and his father’s compound in Ikwo were burnt down, and his step-mother was beaten. He said his father had told him that Njakka’s six-month-old half-brother, Sunday Njakka, fell out of his mother’s arms when she was attacked and died the next day. He claimed that a group of armed PDP supporters, reportedly patronized by a well-known supporter of the incumbent PDP state governor, had previously broken into and vandalized his house on April 6, and had returned again on the night of April 12 but had been repulsed by a local vigilante group.⁸²

During the election period, more than a dozen people were killed in fighting in Umeh, a small community in Ikwo local government, in a clash between community groups associated with the PDP and the ANPP. The tension in Umeh originally was not political but related to a dispute over land. One faction was led by Uchechi Nwanchor, a PDP community leader, and the other faction became associated with the ANPP. It appeared that in Umeh, as in other locations, politics was used as the battleground for the communal dispute, and the elections exacerbated some of the bitterness that previously existed.

Towards the end of April, a false rumor spread through Umeh that Edwin Igwe, an electoral officer and an ANPP leader in the community, had been killed by PDP supporters.⁸³ In response to the rumor, on April 29, ANPP supporters attacked and killed Daniel Nwanchor, a relative of Uchechi and the father of the PDP’s local ward councillorship candidate Ogbonnaya Daniel. They also attacked and injured other PDP supporters. According to PDP supporters in Umeh, those injured included Sunday Ugbala, who was shot in the leg, Nwali Igboji, who was stabbed, and Nweke Nwite, who was stabbed and beaten. They claimed the attackers numbered more than one hundred and were armed with sticks, rods, axes, machetes, and local guns.⁸⁴

In response to the killing of Nwanchor and the ANPP attacks, PDP supporters spread through the community, burning ANPP members’ homes and killing some of their inhabitants. A local organization monitoring the elections found six corpses in Umeh soon after the conflict and reported that a total of seventeen people had died.⁸⁵

PDP members confirmed that the mobile police eventually intervened, but said nobody in the village was arrested. When Human Rights Watch spoke with a police representative, he said that there had been no killings reported in Umeh.⁸⁶ In October, it was reported that five ANPP supporters were arrested and charged with the murder of Daniel Nwanchor and other acts of violence.⁸⁷ However, none of the PDP supporters involved in the violence were reported to have been arrested.⁸⁸

Violence and intimidation in Afikpo North

In Uwanna, in Afikpo North, there was serious inter-communal violence following the May 3 state house of assembly elections. The former minority leader from the State House of Assembly, Arinze Egwu, who before the elections had defected from the ANPP to the PDP, was from this area, and had been attacked and beaten before the elections. On the day of the house of assembly elections on May 3, a rumor circulated that an APGA supporter known as Ziko had been shot and killed. An all-too-common story of reprisal and counter-reprisal ensued. Supporters of opposition parties, who had banded together in the wake of earlier elections, organized to disrupt the elections and destroy ballot boxes, and burned the house and car of the PDP supporter suspected of killing Ziko. In response, PDP supporters burned homes and attacked opposition supporters. One of their victims reported:

On May 4, at 3.45 a.m., while I was sleeping, I heard banging, and glass in my house started breaking. Seventeen men were attacking my house … I recognized five of them [by name]. These are thugs for Arinze Egwu… I was the only one in the house. When they first came in I heard about five gunshots; they also had cutlasses and I got two sharp cuts on my arm. […] I sustained cuts on my head, and had to have stitches. My arm was cut and I had surgery, the bones were totally broken, the arm was only attached by the artery.⁸⁹

Some of the same thugs were witnessed carrying out an armed attack on the home of Olusegun Mbadiwe Ibiam, a man believed to be sympathetic to the ANPP. Three of his family members were shot at, but survived despite serious injuries. Osinnachi Bumi Ibiam, an eighteen-year-old female student, received multiple gunshot wounds in the side and arm; Osunachi Nkama, a twenty-nine year-old woman, was shot in the neck and the side; and Chidera Umezurike Nkama, her three-month-old son, received pellets in the head and abdomen. Olusegun Ibiam’s house, along with several others in the community, was burned to the ground.⁹⁰

Following these events, the state government appointed a crisis committee and deployed approximately fifty mobile police to the community. A community leader reported that around a dozen youths from opposition parties were detained, while the PDP supporters who had been involved in crimes were being protected by the mobile police.⁹¹

In a separate incident in Afikpo North, an ANPP supporter who said that he had tried to resist PDP attempts to rig elections in the area reported that he was attacked by four PDP supporters, including a local councillorship aspirant, on April 20, after the national assembly elections. They chased him over a distance of about two kilometers and attacked him with metal tools and belts, shouting “you will not rule this town, we will.”⁹²

Election observers in Afikpo North polling booths reported that on April 12, the governor’s Special Advisor on Legal Affairs, Mudi Erhenede, had organized and was leading a band of armed PDP supporters.⁹³ A group of election observers associated with the ANPP, who on several occasions challenged the way the elections were being run, reported to Human Rights Watch that they felt threatened by Mudi and his thugs. One of these observers said that three of Mudi’s thugs, in his presence, approached her in a threatening manner when she tried to pose in a photograph with a ballot box that had been smashed by a PDP agent. Another said that his vehicle was chased and shot at while traveling between various polling booths.⁹⁴ An ANPP agent in Afikpo North reported that about ten armed PDP thugs were present at the polling booth and shot into the air and created chaos when ANPP agents complained about the insufficient number of ballot papers. Down the street from this same polling booth, a young man said that he heard shooting and was then attacked by a “thug” whom he recognized from the PDP senatorial candidate’s family compound. He was kicked and beaten with a bottle and needed nine large stitches in his leg. He said there had been a mobile police officer in the vicinity who did not try to intervene.⁹⁵

Killing of INEC ward presiding officer in Ezza North local government

Godwin Aleke, a headmaster who was appointed as a ward presiding officer in Umuoghara, Ezza North local government, was beaten to death on the night of April 12, the day of the National Assembly elections. Tension had existed for some time in Umuoghara between two rival youth associations, the Ogharugo Youth Association (OYA) and the Ogharugo Development Union (ODU). In the election period, this tension took on a political dimension, as OYA was associated with the PDP while ODU was linked with the ANPP. It was rumored, though not confirmed, that Aleke had had an agreement with the PDP to sell some of the result sheets to them. A member of the community familiar with the circumstances of his killing said that on the evening of April 12, Aleke was still in possession of the result sheets. Apparently both ANPP and PDP members were pursuing him to obtain them, either by force or for a fee.⁹⁶ Eventually he took refuge in a local chief’s compound. He left there in a vehicle with an ANPP member whom he considered a friend at about 11 p.m., but was followed by two other vehicles, whose occupants eventually cornered him and beat him to death.

About twenty-six people were arrested in connection with his death, including members and friends of the ODU and people associated with the ANPP. In October, five of them were still in detention, charged with murder.⁹⁷

Other incidents

Election observers reported that the driver and cousin of Chima Nnachiagwu, the National Democratic Party (NDP) candidate for the national House of Representatives, was killed in Afikpo South three days after the National Assembly elections.⁹⁸ There had been tension between Nnachiagwu and Irem Ibom, the PDP candidate who won the election, as both of them had originally contested for the PDP nomination. According to local observers, Chima Nnachiagwu had moved to the NDP as some PDP members had viewed him as not sufficiently supportive of the state governor.⁹⁹ A police representative confirmed his death and said that three people had been charged to court, although no further details were forthcoming.¹⁰⁰

A local human rights group reported that in Effium, in Ohaukwu local government, on April 12, House of Assembly PDP candidate Bernard Uzimu was beaten and kicked by ANPP supporters after he tried to snatch a ballot box; they abducted him and detained him for three days.¹⁰¹ An ANPP ward chairman, Hyacinth Ekebe, was also reportedly beaten in his house on the day of the National Assembly elections.¹⁰² Violent incidents were also reported in Ishielu local government on April 12, including the beating of three ANPP members as they were making their way to Umuhuali to vote.¹⁰³

In Ezza South, a TMG monitor reported that houses were set on fire during the April 12 elections. The identity of the perpetrators is not known; however, this example is typical of the destruction of property which took place alongside other forms of violence in many locations during the election period.

Violence and intimidation in other states

Enugu State

The elections in the southeastern state of Enugu were also characterized by incidents of violent intimidation, most of them carried out by PDP supporters, especially during the April 12 National Assembly elections. The Civil Liberties Organisation claimed that at least five people were shot dead and several others injured in the course of electoral violence in Enugu.¹⁰⁴ There were reports of beatings of opposition supporters, shooting, and other forms of intimidation. APGA members reported being beaten in the state capital, Enugu, while other opposition members, including an ANPP candidate in the National Assembly elections, were beaten in Udi local government.¹⁰⁵ Some European Union election observers who had reported abuses during the April 12 elections were implicitly threatened by the Enugu State governor, who complained about their coverage of the April 12 elections and said he could not guarantee their safety if they did not leave.¹⁰⁶

Edo State

Several deaths and incidents of violent intimidation were reported in Edo State during the elections. In addition to the incidents below, voting on April 12 was violently disrupted by party thugs in several locations, especially in the state capital, Benin City.

An ANPP returning officer reported that on April 19, three ANPP members of his escort were killed outside the collation center at Ehor, the headquarters of Uhunmwode local government, while he was inside; the identity of the perpetrators was not confirmed. Later that same night, he refused to sign the result sheets, because he had received a message that results had already been announced in Benin City, even though the votes were still being counted in the collation center:

I wrote “I disagree with the result” and I signed. That’s when everything went wild. The INEC official yelled at me, asking me: “how could you do this to us?” A soldier came and pointed a gun at me. [Other ANPP supporters] were waiting outside, monitoring and making sure I was safe. When they saw [the situation] through the window, it started a problem outside. There was shouting and then we heard repeated rapid gunshots from outside; everyone including my driver ran away, so I was left alone. ¹⁰⁷

The same ANPP agent (who escaped the above incident unharmed) said he witnessed the killing of an ANPP youth leader called Obadiarho in Oredo local government:

We heard gunshots from where the voting was. As we drove closer, we saw people running away. We stopped. We were scared to move forward. Someone who was shot was still running. He fell down and others came to rescue him. I drove back to look for mobile police who were supposed to be guarding, but they were nowhere to be found. Before he [Obadiarho] died a few minutes later, he said “the military killed me.”¹⁰⁸

The same witness told Human Rights Watch that Sgt. Ofabuo Khen, a police officer who had been sympathetic to ANPP complaints about the elections, was also killed on May 3.¹⁰⁹

The ANPP governorship candidate in Edo reported that four ANPP members were killed at Anegbette in Eftako Central local government area in a dispute with security agents over access to the collation center.¹¹⁰

A PDP official claimed that violence had also been committed by ANPP supporters against PDP supporters in Edo State. He gave the example of an attack in Irrua, in Esan central local government, in which he claimed two PDP supporters were killed by ANPP supporters, during elections for members of the National Assembly.¹¹¹ Another source reported that in Eftako West local government, a former PDP local government chairman was beaten by ANPP supporters. This angered PDP supporters who started shooting into the air, and reportedly killed one of their own group by accident.¹¹²

Kogi State

In Kogi State, several people were killed and others injured during the elections. It was reported that in Idah local government, a prominent ANPP member called Salifu was shot dead while trying to carry away a ballot box.¹¹³ In Okene local government, fighting between PDP and ANPP supporters started early in the morning of April 12, and supporters of both parties used arms to hijack election materials, both in the days preceding the elections and on the election day itself. A human rights activist was told that at least two people were shot dead on April 12. Fighting between PDP and ANPP supporters was also reported on April 19 in Ogori-Magongo local government, as well as other locations in the state.¹¹⁴

Elections had to be halted at several polling stations because of violence and intimidation. An independent election observer reported that in one location, the sounds of gunshots initially scattered voters, who then regrouped to vote. However, just an hour later, the voting had to be stopped because ballot boxes were being smashed and armed thugs appeared at the polling site. A different observer reported: “The ANPP supporters attacked other party agents and fired shots into the air. Both the ANPP and PDP members were chanting war songs. The presiding officer was intimidated so the procedures were not properly followed. Eventually some ANPP supporters stole the ballot box ‘under gunfire.’” A third observer reported that voting at a polling station had to be stopped after unidentified individuals snatched the ballot box and beat the presiding officer.¹¹⁵

Middle Belt states

Incidents of violence were reported in several of the central states known as the Middle Belt, including Benue, Taraba, Plateau, Nasarawa and Adamawa states.

Benue State was one of the few states where soldiers were directly implicated in acts of violence during the election period, most of them against opposition supporters.¹¹⁶ Several people were reportedly killed by soldiers on April 12 and 19 in Adikpo, Kwande local government, the home area of UNPP gubernatorial candidate Paul Unongo, who was contesting against the incumbent PDP governor. There had also been several acts of politically-motivated violence and killings in various locations in Benue State in the days leading up to the elections.

A national ANPP leader claimed that on the morning of April 12, soldiers opened fire indiscriminately in Adikpo in an effort to intimidate voters in the UNPP stronghold. The ANPP leader claimed that over twenty people were killed by soldiers on the spot, and many more were injured.¹¹⁷ Human Rights Watch has not been able to verify the details of this incident independently.

On April 19, several more people were killed in Adikpo. According to a source close to the Benue state government, eight ANPP supporters were killed by soldiers who were attempting to dismantle a roadblock set up by ANPP supporters; the source claimed the ANPP youths had been provoking and throwing stones at the soldiers and had attacked and beaten a PDP politician and burned her car.¹¹⁸ A resident of Adikpo gave a different account: “The former PDP local government transition committee chairman arrived with soldiers, hoping to rig, but it wasn’t possible. So they just opened fire into the crowd. Several people were killed, we heard, and there were casualties at the hospital including women and small children. Then after they left, there was a reprisal: burning of buildings and cars of those associated with the PDP. We saw ourselves about fifteen houses that had been burnt down.”¹¹⁹ The chief press secretary to the Benue state governor claimed that on April 18 and 19, houses and property belonging to over twenty prominent PDP members were destroyed, presumably by opposition supporters.¹²⁰

In Plateau State, it was reported that on April 12, at least six and possibly as many as thirteen people were killed in Pankshin local government area.¹²¹ According to a non-governmental organization based in the state capital Jos, an argument broke out after a party agent from the AD was refused entry into a collation centre in Pankshin. After the AD agent challenged those who were trying to block his entry, a traditional leader reportedly ordered for him to be beaten. Youths from various political parties then went on the rampage, burning houses and destroying property belonging to PDP supporters (Pankshin town was not controlled by the PDP). Mobile police reportedly opened fire on youths who had set up roadblocks to prevent the transport of ballot boxes which they alleged had been stuffed with false votes; thirteen people are believed to have died as a result of the police shootings.¹²²

Violence was also reported in Wase local government, one of the areas of Plateau State which has experienced serious conflict for several years. Violent clashes between PDP supporters and their opponents took place at the INEC office in Wase on April 19 after voters complained that the PDP was trying to rig the elections. Initial reports indicated that ten people were killed.¹²³ Human Rights Watch was not able to confirm details of this incident, but as in other locations, the political violence in Wase appeared to overlap with the inter-communal violence. Further inter-communal violence broke out in the area in February 2004, just before the local government elections; dozens of people were reported to have been killed.¹²⁴

In Nasarawa State, during the state house of assembly elections, the State Commissioner for Women’s Affairs, Maimuna Joyce Katai, and several other people were killed in Toto local government area. Human Rights Watch has not been able to confirm the exact details of this incident, but the information available indicates that the commissioner was probably killed in the context of ongoing inter-ethnic conflict in this area, between the Bassa, Igbirra and Gwari ethnic groups. Toto local government area has suffered prolonged violence for several years as these groups have fought for control of political power and resources; thousands of people have been displaced. The killings on the day of the state house of assembly elections on May 3 took place against this backdrop. Maimuna Joyce Katai, who was from the Gwari ethnic group, had gone to her home area of Toto to vote. Local sources believe that those who killed her were members of the Igbarra ethnic group, who had been unhappy with her appointment to a state government position. When she arrived at the polling station, some Igbarra claimed she had been sent by the Nasarawa state governor to rig the elections in his favor. She was reportedly killed in the presence of her police escorts and election officials. Following the killing, there were further clashes and many residents of the area were displaced. It took the intervention of the army to restore order.¹²⁵

Northern states

The level of violence in the north was not as severe as in other parts of the country. Nonetheless, some incidents of violence were recorded.

For example, in the Tudun Wada area of Kaduna town, capital of Kaduna State, there was a clash between ANPP and PDP supporters two days after the state house of assembly elections of May 3. Local sources reported that a PDP supporter attacked an ANPP campaign coordinator. The police arrested a large number of people, but not the perpetrator of the attack. The majority of those arrested were reportedly released after paying money to the police.¹²⁶ At least one other incident was reported in Tudun Wada, in which a police officer beat up a presiding officer during the state house of assembly elections, following an argument over buying voter cards.¹²⁷

In Sokoto State, in the northwest of Nigeria, election observers recorded at least two deaths as a result of clashes between ANPP and PDP supporters. Both incidents occurred in the aftermath of the National Assembly elections of April 12, one in Tureta local government, the other in Kebbe local government. In both cases, ANPP candidates to the National Assembly won the elections, displacing the PDP. Celebrations by ANPP supporters turned to violence as they clashed with PDP supporters. Election observers reported that in Tureta, a PDP supporter was stoned to death, while in Kebbe, an ANPP supporter died after being severely beaten.¹²⁸

The southwest

Although the elections in the southwest were generally more peaceful than elsewhere, a few incidents of violent intimidation were reported in early April, in the days immediately preceding the elections. For example in Lagos State, there were reports of attacks and intimidation by supporters of several political parties, including the PDP, the AD (which retained the governorship in Lagos State) and some of the smaller parties, such as the New Democrats (ND) and the Progressive Action Congress (PAC). Several people were reportedly injured and property was destroyed. Human Rights Watch has not been able to verify these reports independently. TMG observers also reported that violence broke out between PDP and AD supporters at at least two polling stations in Lagos during the state house of assembly elections of May 3.¹²⁹