Introduction
Nigeria’s Police chief, Sunday Ehindero, alerted the National Assembly of the alarming security situation in Nigeria just before the 2007 elections; “Now coming down to the security situation in the country in relation to the 2007 elections, I have to inform you that we have arms in large quantities in our society; proliferation of arms and ammunitions in our society…There is a big threat of proliferation of arms and ammunitions in this country. Some politicians do carry arms during rallies. Students have been caught with arms and ammunitions on their way to conventions, armed robbers carry sophisticated arms more than ever before. Cultism is rampant in our colleges, polytechnics and universities; some students’ cultists have turned to armed robbers; some have been turned into tools in the hands of some politicians. So in this post we will be looking at political assassinations in Nigeria since the assumption of independent.
Also read: “The Future of Pan Africanism” Nnamdi Azikiwe, (1962)
From May 1, 2005 to August 22, 2006, over 1, 265 armed robbery suspects were arrested, 724 arms recovered and 27, 825 ammunitions were also recovered. It is a truism that election plays an important role in our democracy; in fact, without election, there cannot be democracy. However, elections since the 1960s have had their own problems of violence and acrimony.
List of political Assassinations in Nigeria
| Date | Victim(s) |
| January 15, 1966 | Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Prime Minister of Nigeria |
| January 15, 1966 | Ahmadu Bello, Premier of Northern Nigeria |
| January 15, 1966 | Samuel Akintola, Premier of Western Nigeria |
| 1966 | Festus Okotie-Eboh, government minister |
| July 29, 1966 | Adekunle Fajuyi, Military Governor of Western Nigeria |
| July 29, 1966 | Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, Head of State of Nigeria |
| February 13, 1976 | Murtala Mohammed, Head of State of Nigeria |
| October 19, 1986 | Dele Giwa, journalist |
| 1996 | Kudirat Abiola |
| December 23, 2001 | Bola Ige, justice minister of Nigeria |
| October 16, 2011 | Modu Bintube, Borno state legislator |
| July 2, 2016 | Gideon Aremu, Oyo state legislator and lawmaker. |