statement credited to Katsina State governor, Ibrahim Shema, urging
his supporters to attack his political opponents and treat them as
"cockroaches".
Reacting to the statement in a chat with journalists yesterday, the
Head, EU Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Michael Arrion, said that
Mr. Shema's call to his supporters to "kill" and "crush" political
opponents was "extremely dangerous and unacceptable".
"If it is confirmed, that kind of statements are I'm sorry to say,
extremely dangerous and unacceptable", Mr. Arrion said.
Mr. Shema was seen in an amateur video posted on the internet
encouraging his supporters to retaliate any provocation by the
opposition and to crush them like "cockroaches".
Painting a scenario of what to do if they found cockroaches in their
houses, the excited crowd screamed in unison, "kill them!"
Re-echoing their response, the governor added, "kill them!". Giving
the crowd of supporters the go-ahead not to let any act of provocation
by the opposition go without reprisal, Mr. Shema said the days of PDP
playing the victim was over.
Referring to Rwanda's 1994 pre-genocide statements made by Hutus
against the Tutsis, Mr. Arrion said politicians must desist from using
such hateful words and comments.
He also said the EU will be giving financial aid to the Independent
National Electoral Commission, INEC.
According to him, a team of EU observers will be arriving Nigeria at
the beginning of 2015 to ensure a smooth election process.
The team unlike their predecessors, he said will be spending four
months in Nigeria - this, he said, would enable "the long term
observers" monitor the election and post-election processes.
The observers will also be saddled with the responsibility of
monitoring technical issues, voters turn out, percentage of Nigerians
given the opportunity to vote, legal frameworks among others.
"We are going to have a few dozens of observers, we cannot have
observers at all polling units", he said.
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