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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Elections & Politics

‘You’ll be flogged’: Threats against opponents cast shadow over Nigeria’s 2027 election

From Vanguard · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Analysis Named sources Context piece
  • Borno Commissioner Sainna Buba threatened to flog and break the fingers of people who rejected President Bola Tinubu’s political movement, then apologised and called the remarks figurative.
  • Other Nigerian politicians have reportedly told residents to support the ruling APC, threatened opponents or used language about killing and punishment before the 2027 election.
  • Critics say repeated coercive rhetoric risks normalising intimidation, even when politicians later explain that they meant electoral defeat.

“Those who follow us will enjoy the honey; if you refuse, then you’ll be flogged.” In Maiduguri, that warning from Borno State Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development Sainna Buba quickly travelled beyond the supporters of Tinubu’s City Boy Movement who heard it.

Buba also spoke of breaking fingers before retracting the remarks and describing them as figurative. He later apologised, saying the comments were aimed at APC members accused of disloyalty and did not represent the ideals of the party or the administration of Governor Babagana Zulum.

The episode has become part of a broader pattern cited by critics of the political language emerging ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 presidential election. In Kuje Area Council in the Federal Capital Territory, chairman Samuel Danjuma Shekwolo reportedly told residents to support the APC or leave the council. His chief protocol officer, Stephen Tumaka, similarly warned that Kuje was not for people who would not vote for Tinubu and the APC.

Those who follow us will enjoy the honey; if you refuse, then you’ll be flogged.

· Sainna BubaThe Borno commissioner made the remark while addressing supporters of Tinubu’s City Boy Movement in Maiduguri.

In Osun, Senator Francis Fadahunsi appeared to call for Accord Party members to be killed, then said he meant defeating the party at the polls. In Yobe, APC state chairman Muhammad Gadaka reportedly told women to divorce husbands who opposed the APC, promising to pay their dowry and marry them.

The sequence, critics argue, moves from “vote for us” to “vote for us or leave” and then to punishment for opposition. ADC National Publicity Secretary Bolaji Abdullahi said the APC needed to call its members to order. Even when politicians insist that violent words are metaphorical, opponents and undecided voters still hear them as threats.

APC needs to call their members to order.

· Bolaji AbdullahiThe ADC national publicity secretary criticised the threatening language used by APC figures.
About this summary

Originally published by Vanguard in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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