Oshiomhole on Electoral Integrity, Link Between Political Violence and Post-Election Crime

Senator Adams Oshiomhole, former Governor of Edo State and current Senator representing Edo North, delivered a statement criticizing the role of politicians in fueling electoral violence and highlighting the need for character reform among elected officials.

His remarks connect the conduct of elections to subsequent criminal activity.

Senator Oshiomhole asserted that elected officials, including senators, should not “directly or indirectly, secretly or openly, aid and abet unemployed or semi-employed people and arm them to disrupt elections.”

He believes that if politicians reform their character, the problem of electoral violence could be “90% solved.”

Drawing on his experience as Edo State Governor, he cited the successful institutionalization of the ‘one man, one vote; one woman, one vote’ principle, which made it possible to conduct elections “without counting dead bodies.”

He maintained that elections should not be treated as a “state of war.”

For Oshiomhole, the value of democracy lies not in occupying an important office, but in the “feeling in your heart that people actually, in their free will, found you worthy to be their voice.”

He argued that a politician who achieves office through “rigging or other manipulation” cannot be a happy person deep in their heart.

The Senator drew a direct link between electoral violence and the surge in violent crime immediately following elections. He explained that politicians often “procured weapons for children who are hungry” and paid them a small fee to disrupt the polls. Once the election is over, these politicians “are not able to retrieve the weapons.”

Consequently, these abandoned, armed individuals deploy the weapons for violence, robbery, and other criminal activities, resulting in a “strong correlation between the level of criminality… immediately after the election.”