In this profile, the focus is on members and perceived supporters of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), being the main political parties in Nigeria. Similar issues may occur with regard to members and supporters of other political parties

COI summary

[Targeting, 3.4]

The PDP was the ruling party from 1999 until 2015, after which the APC came to power. In February 2013, the APC was formed by the merge of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) with the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).

In some states, there are reports of incidents involving supporters of the parties. These mostly occur during election periods.

There are reports that both parties use criminal gangs or cult members against each other.

Intra-party violence also takes place. Such incidents mostly occurred during primaries and party congresses, and include political assassinations of rivalling candidates, skirmishes, and riots between opposing factions within a party.

There is no record of political prisoners or detainees.

Risk analysis

Some of the acts to which individuals under this profile could be exposed are of such severe nature that they would amount to persecution (e.g. assassination).

Not all individuals under this profile would face the level of risk required to establish well-founded fear of persecution. The individual assessment of whether or not there is a reasonable degree of likelihood for the applicant to face persecution should take into account risk-impacting circumstances, such as: level of political activity, participating as a candidate in elections, etc.

Nexus to a reason for persecution

Available information indicates that persecution of this profile is for reasons of (imputed) political opinion.