Fears of Violence Grow as Nigeria's Oil Capital Votes

LAGOS AND PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA —
As Nigeria vows to stifle unrest during this
weekend’s election, some voters say they remain
too scared to cast ballots.
Despite assurances from Nigerian President
Muhammadu Buhari, who says security forces will
crack down on anyone who incites violence during
Saturday's local and federal legislative elections in
oil-rich Rivers State, the country remains on edge.
And the concerns aren't unfounded. Nigeria's two
main political parties have accused each other of
inciting violence ahead of this weekend's polls, and
the All Progressives Congress (APC) Party says
dozens of its supporters in Rivers State have been
killed in the run-up to the vote.
Austin Tam-George, a spokesman for the state
government, which is controlled by the Peoples
Democratic Party, said the killings were the fault of
gang members.
He accused the state's former APC governor of
inciting violence.
A police spokesman declined to comment.
‘Everybody is apprehensive’
Livingstone Membere, a youth leader in the Akuku-
Toru area of Rivers State, says he has seen people
killed and their bodies set on fire in recent days.
"Everywhere is tense, everybody is apprehensive. So
it might [reduce] the turnout," he said.
Rivers State and its capital, Port Harcourt, are
home to major sectors of Nigeria's oil industry. The
country is Africa's largest producer of crude, which
brings in about 90 percent of its export earnings.
Sofiri Joab-Peterside, a sociology teacher at the
University of Port Harcourt, says the struggle to
control that oil wealth is one reason for the state's
do-or-die political atmosphere.
"Every political party sees the region as an area
where it needs to deploy its power to make sure
that it wins election," Joab-Peterside said.
Unfortunately, says Anyakwee Nsirimovu of the
Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in
Port Harcourt, if voters stay away, then the killings
have served their purpose.
"The [fuller] sense of killing is to put fear into
people, to stop people from coming out to exercise
their civic responsibilities,” Nsirimovu said. "When
you do that, when you don't have people at the
polling units, of course politicians can get their
way."
The re-elections were ordered by a tribunal
convened to answer challenges to last year's
governorship and legislative elections.