The 2019 governorship candidate of the Alliance for Democracy in Lagos State, Chief Owolabi Salis, on Wednesday, blamed the rising wave of banditry, kidnappings and other violent crimes on politicians who sponsor thugs for political gain.
Salis urged President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly to pass a law banning politicians from using thugs during elections.
He said any politician in need of security should rely on the police or licensed private security companies that can be held responsible for their actions.
“In the developed polities of Europe and America, the use of thugs and hooligans is often rare to come by, and that is why the culture of sanity prevails in their political life and governance”, Salis noted in a statement he issued on Wednesday.
He called on civil society groups and individuals to pressure the Executive and Legislature to act quickly, saying the issue requires urgent attention.
He said the worsening insecurity across the country was linked to politicians who empower hoodlums to intimidate rivals.
According to him, these acts have contributed to banditry, terrorism and kidnapping in several parts of Nigeria.
“It is this same nagging issue of thuggery and hooliganism that deters quite a huge chunk of the electorate who are often afraid to come out and vote for fear that their safety may be in danger,” he said.
Salis accused some politicians of turning thugs into private militias.
He said, “These unscrupulous politicians would recruit these thugs as their private army, equip them with guns, arms and ammunition, buy them drugs and intoxicants that turn them wild, vicious and enraged.
However, after using them, they dump them because they never had any enduring interest in them in the first place beyond using them to achieve their ambition.”
He warned that abandoned thugs often resort to crime.
Salis also said thugs were regularly used to snatch ballot boxes and manipulate election results.
“The consequences of getting them dumped and not usefully engaged are that they turn their weapons into self-serving tools for criminal activities like terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery and violence.
Political thugs and hooligans are often used to snatch ballot boxes, manipulate the voting processes and numerically distort voting figures. Until we remove the use of thugs and hooligans from our political culture, we may never know democracy,” he warned.
According to him, many qualified Nigerians, both at home and abroad, have refused to join politics due to the violence associated with elections.
Salis also accused some politicians of sponsoring bandits to destabilise the country and undermine the economy through illegal mining.
He said many do not understand the consequences of their actions.
“There are spiritual repercussions to perpetrating evils, because a society ruled by the unjust can never know peace or sanity,” he said.
His concerns come at a time when security agencies are battling rising attacks and kidnappings in several states, with political observers linking part of the problem to political thuggery and armed groups empowered during election periods.
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