Nigeria Standing on ‘Dangerous Precipice’ After Dubious Elections, Bishops Warn

Nigeria’s Catholic bishops have warned that the nation could plunge into “an avoidable crisis” if trust in the electoral process is not restored after this week’s dubious election.

On Wednesday, Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu the winner of a controversial presidential ballot vote, amid accusations of rigged elections and calls for a return to the polls.

According to INEC, Tinubu, representing the ruling All Progressives Congress party, received close to 8.8 million votes or 36.6 percent of the total, handily defeating vice president Atiku Abubakar of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and popular third force candidate Peter Obi.

Caritas Nigeria deployed more than 6000 election observers across Nigeria’s 36 states and reported widespread interference in the electoral process, including brutal beatings of voters and observers, ballot burning, roadblocks, underage voting, and fraudulent collusion of police and INEC officials with election tampering.