Jega condemns deployment of
hooded security men for election
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC Prof Attahiru Jega yesterday
faulted the use of hooded security men during the
August 9 governorship election in Osun State.
Beside, he spoke of how an attempt to rig the Ogun
State governorship.
Describing the trend as “worrisome, he said masked
men would not be allowed for next year’s general
elections as he also accused the security men
deployed in OsunState of being “overzealous”.
Department of State Security (DSS) spokesperson
Marylyn Ogar admitted that some of the DSS men
deployed for the election wore hoods. Many other
hooded troops in military fatigue, whose identities
were unknown, were also seen in action before and
during the election.
“Any security personnel deployed for the election
must be someone identifiable,” Jega said during a
session with local and international Civil Society
Organisations, CSOs, involved in monitoring elections
yesterday in Abuja.
Jega added: “In recent times, we have witnessed an
increased presence of hooded security operatives
during elections. This is an emerging trend which is
highly worrisome and which needs to be addressed
in good time. Security agents who are deployed on
election duties should not be masked, the doctrine
of transparency requires that they should be
identifiable.
“We will not allow such persons during the 2015
elections. Any security personnel deployed for the
election must be someone identifiable such that if
anything happens we will be able to know who to
hold responsible”, Jega added.
Speaking on the overzealousness of some of the
security men deployed, Jega said some adhoc
employees of the commission and nine NYSC
members, who were engaged as ad-hoc officials,
were erroneously arrested and kept in detention for
over 12 hours.
He said that they were arrested around 9p.m on the
eve of the election while on their way to the
Registration Area Centres (RACs), which was provided
for them by the Commission.
“They were not released until about 6am the next
day, a situation that almost disrupted the distribution
of electoral materials in some areas.
\
“It was sheer luck that we still managed to open the
polling units early, otherwise, there would have been
disaster. We took a serious view of that and reported
the matter to all the appropriate authorities because
at a point we became worried that some persons
wanted to undermine our effort”.
But Jega said the perceived over militarisation of the
just Ekiti and Osun governorship elections, did not
deter the voters from turning out to vote for their
candidates.
“In fact, the two elections proved that there was a
high correlation between the massive deployment of
security and the willingness of people to come out
and vote.
“Apart from over-zealousness on the part of some of
the security men on the field, we discovered that
people actually felt more secured to exercise their
franchise. The key lesson our politicians need to
learn from the two elections is that the era has gone
when they relied on corrupt electoral officers or
security agents to manipulate elections.
“In this era, any politician that intends to win election
must reach out and convince the voters, be it
through ‘stomach-infrastructure’ or otherwise. The
only guarantee to win election now is to let the
voters come out to vote for you, which in turn means
that you must first of all convince them on your
credibility,” he said
Jega alleged that some “unscrupulous elements”,
attempted to use a software, to rig the Osun election
won by Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the APC.
“We discovered that some people had invaded our
system with software that was reducing age on the
register. Thank God that we discovered it before it
was too late and had to put aside the register and
produced another one, even though it was at a very
high cost.
“Despite the challenge, the Osun State election has
been adjudged as one of the best we have conducted
recently when judged by all variables for assessing a
successful election. Though the election was not
perfect, we did a lot to improve on the Ekiti election.
“It is also worthy to mention that before the Osun
election, security agents were able to identify thugs
that were imported into the state by politicians. The
security men successfully cordoned the building
where the thugs were kept and prevented them
from leaving the compound until the election
ended.”
Jega said over 70 per cent of the voters in Osun
State collected their Permanent Voters Card, PVC,
unlike in Ekiti State where only about 64 per cent of
the voters collected the cards.
On Adamawa by-election, Jega, said though it came
as an emergency, the electoral body would do
everything possible to ensure a free, fair and
credible poll.
He said that some of the prospective voters had
been displaced from their homes because of the
insurgency in the state, which is among the three
under a state of emergency.
“Nobody had planned for election in Adamawa State,
but with the little time we have, we are preparing to
make it much better than that of Osun,” Jega added.
Likewise, the INEC boss said the Commission was
seeking ways to reduce the high percentage of
rejected votes as was witnessed in Ekiti and Osun
states.
”It is a major issue that we have to look into because
we received complaints that so many ballots were
rejected on the basis that the thumb prints narrowly
crossed the line.
“The truth is that we have a rule that allows the
electoral officer to reject such ballot. In some
advanced countries, they consider whether or not
about 50 per cent of the thumb print was inside the
provided space. We did not want to allow the use of
discretion by our staff, which was why we made the
rule. However, in view of the complaints, we will
study this issue of rejected votes and see what we
can do about it.”
He said INEC had concluded plans to increase the
number of polling units ahead of the 2015 general
elections, adding that all the polling units currently
situated in private residences will be re-located to
public places before the election.
”By 2015, we don’t want any polling unit to be more
than 500 on average”, he said.
The ‘Situation Room,’ organised by the Police and
Legal Advocacy Centre(PLAC), is aimed at providing a
platform for the electoral body to interface with the
CSO’s.
Reacting to Jega’s speech, Lagos lawyer Femi Falana
(SAN), said: “Let the SSS which has performed very
well in fighting the Boko Haram menace, face that
national task and allow the police to carry out the
duty of maintaining law and order during elections”
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