The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has commended the United States government for hitting election offenders in Nigeria with visa ban.
CISLAC Executive Director, Auwal Ibrahim Musa, said in a statement that this move will potentially ensure fairness, credibility and transparency in Nigeria’s electoral processes.
Development Diaries learnt that the United States said it had imposed visa restrictions on some individuals for their actions during the November 2019 Kogi and Bayelsa State elections and in the run-up to the Edo and Ondo State governorship polls.
However, the U.S. government did not disclose the names of the individuals.
‘In July 2019, we announced the imposition of visa restrictions on Nigerians who undermined the February and March 2019 elections’, a statement signed by the spokesperson for the Department of State, Morgan Ortagus, read.
‘Today [14 September, 2020], the Secretary of State [Mike Pompeo] is imposing additional visa restrictions on individuals for their actions surrounding the November 2019 Kogi and Bayelsa State elections and in the run-up to the September and October 2020 Edo and Ondo States’ elections.
‘These individuals have so far operated with impunity at the expense of the Nigerian people and have undermined democratic principles’.
Musa, who described this development as remarkable, said it had ‘validated the years of persistent demands by civil society, human rights and anti-corruption activists for stringent international measures to discourage electoral violence that paves way for electoral fraud and undermines democratic principles in Nigeria’.
The CISLAC executive director also said, ‘We are not unaware of lack of political will at all levels of government to address electoral violence, in spite of the existence of laws and reports from several panels and commissions, with recommendations.
‘We also welcome the pronouncement by the United State government in anticipation of respect for sanity and sanctity of rules of law in the run-up to the September and October 2020 Edo and Ondo State elections, and beyond’, the statement read.
He called on the United Kingdom and other countries to also impose visa restrictions on electoral offenders.
Source: CISLAC
Photo source: Photo source: CISLAC
