SUMMARY
Non-state clashes have on several occasions broken out in connection to the political struggle in Nigeria, between supporters, or members, of political parties, resulting in deaths. Such clashes have usually taken place in connection to elections, with the aim of securing electoral victory. The non-state violence between the groups has also included targeted killings of party officials. At times, the clashes between the political parties and their supporters have overlapped with local conflicts over land, resources, or other issues. The perpetrators have usually gotten away with impunity, as a consequence of the corrupt, and highly politicized, judiciary system in Nigeria.
The other dyads that belong to the same Political conflicts cluster of non-state conflicts are; Supporters of ANPP – Supporters of PDP and Supporters of PDP – Supporters of UNPP.
The Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have competed for political power since their formation in 1998. In connection to this political struggle, clashes have broken out between supporters of the two parties, resulting in deaths. The violence recorded in 2003 was in relation to the control of a bus-station, an important source of revenue for the local population. The bus-station was controlled by Supporters of PDP, when Supporters of AD challenged the ownership of the station violence broke out which caused the death of more than thirty people.
The AD - PDP conflict must also be viewed in the broader spectrum of the ethnic and religious non-state conflicts that have ravaged Nigeria in the past and intensified with the end of military rule, from 1999 and onwards. The conflicts throughout Nigeria have ethnic, political, economic, and religious components, which have become inextricably linked over time, pitting various groups and alliances of groups against each other along different dividing lines.
The non-state conflict between the Supporters of AD and the Supporters of PDP is first included in UCDP data in 2003. In May that year, a clash between AD and PDP supporters caused over 25 battle-related deaths.
