President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government must end involvement of military in elections in Nigeria in order to stem incessant killings and other forms of criminality allegedly perpetrated by soldiers in some parts of the country, especially Rivers State, during the just-concluded elections.
Due to senseless killings and maiming of innocent citizens, including INEC ad-hoc staff, unending controversies portraying Nigeria in bad light before the global community, have continued to trail involvement of soldiers in the country’s electoral process which many regard as aberration under a democratic system of government.
No wonder local and international election observers that recorded unwarranted killings, as well as instances military personnel reportedly forcefully gained entry into collation centres in River State and some other parts of the country, thereby heightening levels of tension and violence there, have added their voices to rising number of those stoutly against continuing involvement of military in Nigeria’s electoral process.
According to National Commissioner and Chairman, Voter Education and Publicity, Festus Okoye, roles played by soldiers and hoodlums in the March 9, 2019 Governorship and State Assembly elections in Rivers State, led to disruption of collation of results. Okoye said: “Results from 17 local governments out of 23 are in the commission’s custody while Declaration and Returns for 21 state constituencies out of 32 were made prior to suspension of electoral process.
Collation centres were invaded by soldiers and armed gangs, resulting in intimidation and unlawful arrest of election officials, thereby disrupting the collation process’. Since most of Rivers’ results were in custody of INEC before electoral process was suspended, we urge the electoral body to quickly conclude other aspects to ensure final release of the entire results soonest especially in view of the tension the exercise has so far generated.
We condemn unwarranted invasion of collation centres by soldiers during elections in Rivers and some other parts of the country. Even if they were on election duty, they were not supposed to be close to polling stations in order not to create fear in voters and election officials.
Military involvement prevented a number of voters from coming out to vote, thereby leading to high level of vote-apathy, intimidation, tension, violence and killings recorded. Soldiers – rank and file, are expected to be insulated from partisan politics and should therefore, not engage in activities capable of threatening Nigeria’s democracy.
Soldiers involved in invasion of collation centres during the recent elections, should be fished out and punished. Many were surprised ahead of the Governorship and State Assembly elections when news went round that federal government was planning to dispatch huge numbers of security personnel to states such as Rivers,Bayelsa, Delta, Akwa Ibom and Edo, described as prone to violence and electoral malfeasances, as well as some states in South-West where killings were recorded.
Human Rights Lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, recently urged government to stop illegal militarisation of elections in Nigeria. He recalled that following a number of cases filed by leaders of defunct ACN and CPC, as well as APC from 2003 to 2015, courts had since declared involvement of soldiers in elections in Nigeria illegal and unconstitutional.
He cited amendments of the Electoral Act 2010 of March 27, 2015, especially Section 29 (3) that says “INEC shall request for employment of the military only for purposes of securing distribution and delivery of election materials and protection of election officials”. INEC’s committee that investigated alleged intimidation and killing of defenceless voters in Rivers by soldiers has indicted the military. However, many are surprised that the military rejected the report and justified their involvement.
We recall that Justice Ibrahim Buba of a Federal High Court in Lagos on March 23, 2015, declared that former President Goodluck Jonathan did not have power to deploy soldiers for elections without approval of National Assembly. Since this landmark declaration subsists, the Buhari administration ought not to have involved soldiers in 2019 elections as alleged misconduct of the military posed danger to constitutional democracy.
Usual excuse that soldiers were deployed for elections due to incapacity of Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to tackle violence and killings perpetrated by desperate politicians and hoodlums, is not tenable. It is a shame that in spite of huge annual budgetary allocations, police personnel, compared with other major security operatives, are grossly neglected. No wonder their level of underperformance is legendary.
Government should end involvement of soldiers in elections and police duties generally. They should concentrate on their core duty of protecting Nigeria from external aggression. The police should be adequately funded to cope effectively with mounting challenges of insecurity.
END
Be the first to comment