Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room

On January 19, 2015 Situation Room issued a statement condemning a front page advert on opposition candidate General Muhammadu Buhari in some national dailies sponsored by Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State with a banner headline “Nigerians Be Warned” which was unethical and negates Abuja Peace Accord voluntarily signed by  presidential candidates.[13][14][15]

After the  postponement of 2015 general elections[16][17] scheduled for February 14 and 28 for six  weeks (March 28 and April 11)[18] less than a week before polls were due to open after Nigeria Military said it could not guarantee security of citizens[19] during the elections, Situation Room swiftly issued a strong worded statement critical of the Military action accusing it of evoking dark memories of past military dictatorships and throwing up constitutional and political challenges that undermine and subvert Nigeria’s fledgling democracy.[20] It said the Military had shaken public confidence and any modicum of credibility of the 2015 elections.

In its first preliminary election statement on March 28, 2015 Situation Room drew attention of INEC headquarters and all relevant stakeholders in the presidential and national assembly elections to logistics challenges arising from late arrival or non-availability of electoral materials across several states leading to delayed voting. All the 11 House of Representatives Constituencies in Jigawa State, one in Edo State and a local government area in Imo State where voting had already commenced were postponed for logistical reasons.

On March 30, 2015 Situation Room reported that it received reports of politicians and security forces attempting to manipulate collation of results across the states.[12][21] It then called on international community to exert pressure on all political actors to play by the electoral law and guidelines and where need be sanction be imposed on specific politicians involved.

In 2019, Situation Room issued series of statements condemning the conduct of the polls resulting from wide spread irregularities and said it was disappointed by the serious lapses in the conduct of Presidential and National Assembly elections saying it was a step back from 2015 polls.[22][23][24] The polls slated for February 16, 2019 were postponed hours before polls were due to open due to logistic challenges. But when the polls held on the rescheduled date, same logistic hitches affected the conduct of the polls in hundreds of locations across the country.[11]  About 58 deaths were recorded during the polls.[25][26] Situation Room  reported incidence of vote-buying  ranging from 500 to 5,000 naira in  Adamawa, Sokoto, Lagos, Delta, Enugu, Ekiti, Bauchi, Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau, Kwara, Zamfara, Kebbi, Oyo, Kano and Osun States.[26][27]

Situation Room in its preliminary report said the election was marred by violence and security lapses.[27] It also reported that electoral officials were compromised, security operatives were partisan in their conduct and activities of major political parties during the election were disappointing.[28]

After the announcement of results and declaration of winner, Situation Room challenged the accuracy of the election data released. Situation Room recorded 1,084,358 cancelled votes across 1175 polling units in 18 States and called on INEC to explain the process leading to the cancellation of such huge number of votes for fairness and objectivity.[29] In 2015, 844, 519 were rejected out of the 29,432,083 votes cast.

Situation Room in its final report on 2019 elections said the polls failed to meet “threshold for free, fair and credible elections”.[30][31]