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Communal Violence Election-Related Violence NNG0420

Gunmen stormed the area shooting randomly as voters queued at polling stations, killing six people including Alhaji Umar Aminu, the APC candidate for Dukku South Constituency in the Gombe State House of Assembly. The attackers fled on the Dukku-Darazo road after the assault

28 Mar 2015 · Dukku, Dukku, Gombe

Deaths

6

Kidnapped

0

Total casualties

6

Perpetrators

Boko Haram

Response

Despite the attacks, elections continued in other areas of the state as security forces maintained control. The All Progressives Congress also condemned the killing of its members (including the legislator) in Gombe, stating it was "aimed at intimidating its members and preventing them from coming out to vote

Displacement

0

Socioeconomic drivers

Electoral competition, insurgency spillover, intimidation of voters, targeting of opposition candidates.

Trajectory

The 2015 election attacks in Gombe were the last time Boko Haram successfully disrupted a national election on such a scale. By the 2019 and 2023 elections, the group had been significantly degraded and pushed further into the Lake Chad basin, though they still managed localized threats.

Cycle notes

Mirrored earlier politically motivated attacks on voters and electoral actors during Nigerian elections, particularly the 2 February 2015 suicide attack near an election rally in Gombe and earlier cycles of election-related violence such as the November 2008 Jos election crisis, reflecting a recurring pattern in which armed groups target voters, candidates, and polling environments to intimidate electorates, disrupt the democratic process, and influence political outcomes during sensitive election periods.

Pattern

Election-Related Violence

Sources