Widespread rioting in the north of Nigeria greeted the result of the country’s presidential election on Saturday 16 April, which saw the incumbent Goodluck Jonathan win in a landslide victory.
President Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) hammered his two main rivals – Congress for Progressive Change’s Muhammadu Buhari and former Economic and Financial Crime Council boss Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, who was the Action Congress of Nigeria’s candidate.
The result announced by Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) showed President Jonathan secured 22,495,187 votes while Buhari and Ribadu received 12,214,853 and 2,079,151 respectively.
Despite being welcomed by international observers as an improvement on previous elections, which have been marred by corruption, accusations of vote rigging are still flying amid the crisis in the predominately Muslim north.
Media reports suggest that hundreds of people have been killed and several million euros worth of property destroyed in riots across the region.
While we unequivocally condemn the continued violence in the north, we would like to state this is not the first time innocent people have been killed in cold blood in Nigeria’s north. Last year’s ethnic clashes left a death toll in the hundreds.
We believe that urgent measures must be taken to halt this violence. The alternative is civil war, which would do no good to anyone.
news@metroeireann.com
