Election Post-mortem: Did Security Fail Nigeria?

On February 23, 2019, the Presidential and National Assembly elections were conducted in Nigeria. Though largely peaceful in most states, the polls were characterized by irregularities and violence in Rivers, Anambra, Lagos and a few other states. Of all the incidences of violence that trailed the elections, the clash between some armed youth and soldiers on February 23 in Abonnema community in Rivers State was the deadliest. In the mayhem, soldiers killed six youths and lost one officer while two others were injured. Following these developments, this edition of Nextier SPD Weekly assesses the rules of military engagement in an election and makes recommendations to avert soldiers-civilians clashes in the future.

Click here to download report.