SPECIAL REPORT: Violence, Intimidation and Manufactured Votes – The Dark Reality of Kogi’s Okura Bye-Election

The August 16th, 2025 bye-election into the Okura State Constituency of Dekina Local Government, Kogi State, has once again exposed the deepening crisis of democracy under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state. What was expected to be a straightforward exercise to fill a vacant legislative seat has instead become a mirror reflecting years of electoral manipulation, violence, and brazen subversion of the people’s will in Kogi.

The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which fielded Hon. Meliga Godwin as its candidate, has rejected the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), describing the entire exercise as “a charade where 98% of the constituency never saw any voting.”

Eyewitness accounts and statements from the PDP allege that, in the early hours of election day, APC operatives working with compromised security personnel and aided by thugs, forcibly took possession of electoral materials from INEC officials. These materials were then moved to undisclosed locations, effectively disenfranchising voters across nearly all polling units in Okura.

When confronted, even INEC officials on the ground reportedly admitted to PDP representatives that the Commission “had no security of its own” to secure the process. The State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), when contacted by the PDP candidate, acknowledged awareness of the incident and claimed he had informed the Commissioner of Police. Yet, in a shocking twist, INEC still proceeded to announce results, declaring the APC the victor.

What has fueled widespread outrage is not only the alleged hijacking of the process but also the statistical absurdities of the declared results.

In the 2023 general election for the same constituency, INEC declared APC the winner with 8,549 votes against PDP’s 1,487 votes. That result, though contested, at least fell within a realm of plausibility.

But in the 2025 bye-election, INEC announced a staggering 55,073 votes for APC and just 1,038 for PDP. A six-fold increase in voter turnout in a constituency where, by INEC’s own REC’s admission on live television, “voter turnout was low” is an arithmetic impossibility that underscores the depth of alleged manipulation.

Observers note that such inflated figures could not have been generated without deliberate falsification, raising fresh questions about the complicity of INEC officials in the manipulation of election outcomes in Kogi State.

The Okura bye-election controversy is not an isolated case. Over the past decade, elections in Kogi State have acquired a notorious reputation for violence, voter suppression, and outright fabrication of results.

From the 2019 governorship election—widely condemned by local and international observers for its unprecedented violence—to the 2023 general elections where reports of ballot box snatching and thuggery were rampant, the same script has played out repeatedly. The ruling political family in Kogi has consistently been accused of using the state’s security apparatus as a tool of intimidation and silencing dissent.

The PDP, in its reaction, described the Okura exercise as “a travesty of democracy and a gross violation of the Constitution and the Electoral Act, 2022.”

The opposition party has formally demanded the cancellation of the Okura bye-election and the conduct of a fresh, credible poll under conditions that guarantee the safety and participation of voters.

In a strongly worded statement, the PDP cautioned that while it has so far exercised restraint “not out of weakness, but in respect for the sanctity of human life,” democracy cannot survive if electoral robbery continues to be endorsed by INEC itself.

The party has called on INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to intervene urgently and “restore the confidence of the people in our electoral system.”

The controversy leaves Nigerians with a deeper question: can democracy survive in a state where elections are routinely reduced to contests of violence, intimidation, and fabricated figures?

As the people of Okura Constituency await justice, the Okura bye-election stands as a stark reminder that the battle for credible elections in Nigeria is far from won.