The United States (US) Foreign Mission has expressed concern over ethnic profiling during the just concluded governorship and State House of Assembly elections in Lagos State.
The US Foreign Mission office in Abuja, in a press statement on Tuesday, also expressed concern over what it referred to as “disturbing acts of violent voter intimidation and suppression that took place during those polls in Lagos, Kano, and other states”.
The statement further noted that plans to “consider all available actions, including additional visa restrictions, on individuals believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic process in Nigeria”.
According to the statement, members of the mission observed that the elections in Lagos and elsewhere witnessed some of these incidents first-hand, also called on the President Muhammadu Buhari led All Progressives Congress (APC) federal government to bring to justice “individuals found to have ordered or carried out efforts to intimidate voters and suppress voting during the election process”.
It commended all Nigerians who condemned the use of ethnically inciting languages, as it joined other international observers in urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to improve on its processes which it said were flawed during the exercise.
The statement reads, “The March 18 elections appear to have had significant operational improvements, as polling stations generally opened on time and most results were visible on an electronic viewing platform in a timely manner.
The United States renews its call for any challenges to election results to go through established legal processes, which must not be interfered with. We further call for Nigeria’s people to work together as they participate in and continue to strengthen the country’s vibrant democracy,” the statement further reads.
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