When the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, blew the whistle last month to signal the commencement of political campaigns towards next year’s elections, the degree of threats and intimidation unleashed by highly placed political office holders across the country was disheartening.

A section of Nigeria’s political elite openly threaten voters, opponents and dissenting residents with violence, eviction and physical harm ahead of the 2027 general elections.

From Osun to the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Borno, Kebbi and Ebonyi States, serving senators, commissioners, council chairmen and state governors have in recent weeks been caught on camera or quoted directly threatening citizens who refuse to align with the ruling All Progressives Congress APC, triggering condemnation from civil society groups, rights organisations and opposition politicians who insist the trend could plunge the country into another round of election-related bloodletting.

Divorce option in Yobe

In Yobe state, the situation went from bizarre to ridiculous as the state chairman of the APC, Alhaji Mohammed Gadaka, triggered widespread condemnation after urging married women in the state to divorce their husbands if they stopped them from voting APC, a remark he later withdrew following public outcry.

Gadaka, who made the comment while addressing hundreds of new defectors into the APC in Nangere town on Thursday, went as far as promising to personally settle the “new bride price” for any woman who ended her marriage on account of her loyalty to the party.

Reaction to the remark was swift and severe, with residents of the state, among them Islamic scholars, describing it as reckless, provocative and capable of undermining family values.

Confronted with the backlash, the APC chairman took to a 42-second video, posted on the Facebook page of the Director General, Press and Media Affairs to Governor Mai Mala Buni, Mamman Mohammed, to walk back his earlier comment.

He explained that his words had been misconstrued, insisting they were nothing more than a “joking banter” rooted in a long-standing tradition of playful teasing between his Ngamo people and their Kare-Kare-speaking neighbours.

“My statement was just a usual joking banter and does not in any way represent the ideals I stand for or intended to encourage divorce among married people,” Gadaka said, adding, “I offer apologies for my statement, and I hereby withdraw it.”

On the eve of the last governorship election in Osun state, Osun East Senator, Francis Adenigba Fadahunsi, while addressing APC supporters at the palace of the Owa Obokun of Ijesaland in Ilesa at a campaign rally said many of his party members had been killed by Accord party members.

Speaking in Yoruba language, Fadahunsi was heard telling the gathering in a trending video, “Until the day of election, when you see any Accord party member here in Ilesa, kill them”. He dared his audience to record and circulate his threats saying, “If we hear of the Accord Party again in Ilesa here for the election coming up on Saturday, you can record me and say it anywhere.”

Following the backlash, his media office issued a statement titled “Kill Osun Accord with Votes, Not Violence,” insisting the senator meant only that APC should defeat the Accord party at the polls and that the circulating clip had been selectively edited from a longer speech.

Governor Ademola Adeleke rejected the clarification, describing the remarks as a national security threat and demanding Fadahunsi’s arrest, while the police have since questioned the senator as part of their investigation.

Vote APC or leave FCT

In the FCT, the Chairman of Kuje Area Council, Samuel Danjuma Shekwolo, stirred a storm after warning residents who do not support the APC to relocate ahead of 2027. “Either you are for the APC or you leave the area council,” Shekwolo said on video, linking his position to development projects credited to President Bola Tinubu and the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.

Amnesty International Nigeria promptly condemned the remarks as a “call to violence,” insisting that no public official has the right to tie residency in any part of the country to political affiliation, and urging security agencies to immediately halt any plan to deploy violence against residents over their political choices.

Opponents of APC to be flogged in Borno

Now, a similar controversy has engulfed Borno State, where the Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Sainna Buba, threatened that those who refuse to support the APC in 2027 “will be flogged,” while separately warning that anyone who crossed the ruling party would have a finger broken.

The remarks, made at a campaign inauguration organised by the Tinubu City Boy Movement in Maiduguri, drew sharp condemnation from both the Nigeria Democratic Congress NDC and Amnesty International, which described the commissioner’s outburst as unlawful and reckless.

The rights group warned that some politicians are already “overheating the polity” ahead of 2027, creating what it called a toxic climate of fear, and called on political parties to publicly condemn incitement to hostility or violence.

Speak against Kebbi governor and be dealt with

In Kebbi State, the Chairman of Gwandu Local Government Area, Alhaji Atiku Ahmad Mandiya, told supporters in a video that anyone who spoke against Governor Nasir Idris “should be dealt with,” while promising to secure the release of any supporter arrested for confronting the governor’s opponents. Mandiya also urged APC loyalists to station at least one person at every polling unit to protect the party’s interests during the 2027 polls, a directive that has raised fresh concerns about voter intimidation in the state.

Council chairmen in Ebonyi to be removed for failing to deliver APC

Ebonyi State Governor, Francis Nwifuru, has equally drawn criticisms after warning newly inaugurated local government chairmen that they would be removed from office if they failed to deliver their councils to the APC in 2027.

Responding to allegations by opposition parties that APC members were harassing and intimidating political critics in the state, Nwifuru dismissed the claims and warned, “They will see real threat at the right time.”

He went further to tell the chairmen and their deputies at their inauguration at the Ecumenical Centre, Abakaliki that: “Any chairman who fails to win his council will be removed from office and replaced with a councillor. I want this information to be on the headlines of newspapers because, as politicians, we will not speak in secret.”

Meanwhile, the newly sworn-in Chairman of Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi state, Eze Paul Ituma, has since vowed to implement the directive, warning residents unwilling to align with the APC to steer clear of the council.

The threats come as the International Republican Institute IRI, in a pre-election assessment of Nigeria’s democratic environment, disclosed that civil society monitors recorded more than 81 election-related violent incidents in Osun State alone in the year preceding the August governorship poll, with violence intensifying as Election Day approached.

The lethal consequences of political friction in Osun State were underscored by a Pre-Election Security Risk Assessment report by the Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI). The security assessment documented 73 election-related violent incidents resulting in 29 deaths leading up to local polls, with the state capital, Osogbo, emerging as the primary hotspot. These figures have deepened fears over the security climate ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Amnesty International, in its various interventions, has insisted that political affiliation must never be treated as an offence in a democracy. “People’s right to make political choices is protected by Nigeria’s constitution, the Electoral Act and international law,” the organisation stated, warning that inflammatory rhetoric from public officials could inflame tension and undermine citizens’ freedom to vote for parties of their choice as the country edges closer to a keenly contested general election.

“Political parties and politicians must publicly condemn any advocacy of hatred or incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.”

Public Outrage

Chima Okonkwo, a trader in the nation’s capital said; “What we are seeing from these politicians is pure desperation. They are no longer asking for our votes; they are telling us that our lives don’t matter if we disagree with them. When a governor publicly threatens local council chairmen and a commissioner promises to break people’s fingers, it shows democracy is turning into a dictatorship.”

Aisha Bello, a civil servant, urged security agencies to step up their game.

“It is terrifying to live in a country where a local council chairman can threaten to drive citizens out of their homes just because they belong to another political party. Kuje belongs to all Nigerians, not to APC or PDP. The security agencies must step in before these leaders raise private militias for 2027”, she said.

On his part, Human Rights Advocate, Babatunde Adeleke, expressed fears that the forthcoming general ejection could be a war zone.

“The rhetoric coming out of Osun, Kebbi, and Borno is a direct call to anarchy. When leaders tell supporters to deal with critics and promise to bail them out of police custody, they are officially sanctioning criminality. If the Inspector General of Police does not make high-profile arrests now, 2027 will not be an election; it will be a war zone”, said Adeleke. (Saturday Vanguard)