Election violence fears: Nigerians who travelled abroad return

Election violence in Nigeria

Many Nigerians who travelled abroad early in the year thinking that the just concluded general elections may be trailed by violence have started returning to the country.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that they began returning to the country after the April 25 rerun in three states where the April 11 governorship elections were declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

One of them, Mrs. Beatrice Adekayero, who left Nigeria with her three children for the United States on January 7, 2015, told one of our correspondents on her return to the country that the fear of violence actually made her husband to relocate the family abroad. Asked if she engaged in any job while in the US to sustain the family, the wife of the Ekiti State-based politician said her husband had made financial provision that took care of the family’s needs abroad.

Adekayero, however, admitted that the peaceful conduct of the elections necessitated her return.

Another Nigerian, Mrs. Josephine Anipupo, whose husband owns an auto shop in Apapa area of Lagos State, returned to the country early in the week. Anipupo said she was constantly calling home to find out the situation of things.

According to her, she heaved a sigh of relief after the elections.

She said her husband decided to relocate the family abroad following a report that listed some states where violence was likely to occur during the polls.

Mr. Uche Okondu is a Lagos-based businessman who also returned on April 2, 2015, a day after the final result of the presidential election was announced.

Okondu said he did not need to wait till after the governorship election since the presidential poll was peaceful.

Some commercial cab operators confirmed to one of our correspondents at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos the return of Nigerians who travelled abroad in the build-up to the general elections had boosted their business.

One of the motorists, Peter Ola, said, “It is boom time for us, no doubt. Before the elections, you needed to come and see how people were running out of the country. When I asked some of my few customer that period, they told me they were not willing to die in any election-related crisis. But thank God there’s no serious crisis. The way many of them sounded, it was as if they saw a vision or had premonitions that there would be problems.

“I carried one family also who told me they were on their way to the United States to stay with a family for the period. As God would have it, I collected their contacts so they could call me to carry them from the airport on their arrival back to Lagos. It was last week they returned. They told me they shouldn’t have travelled. It is like they regretted it. Many more are coming back and we will gladly receive them back. It’s my business to do that and make more money.”

Another cab operator, who simply identified himself as Chuks, said he had made more money before, during and after the election period than all the money he made in the second half of last year.

He said, “In fact, immediately after the presidential election, people started returning. You know the March 28 election was the major one people thought would lead to crisis, but for the peace that reigned, some of those who travelled saw no reason to have done so. But that’s not my problem. It’s been a profitable period ever since.

“I have made much more money during the election period alone than during the last half of last year. People really travelled out of the country this year and in the same manner, they are flocking back. We are happy. I am happy.”

it had been reported before the elections that some apprehensive politicians, many chief executive officers/ chairmen of companies, top businessmen and wealthy Nigerians started moving their families out of Nigeria in a bid to avoid being caught up in violence that might erupt after the general elections.