By Myke Uzendu, Abuja
Security agencies have warned political thugs, voter buyers and other miscreants to reconsider any plan that will compromise the February 21 FCT Council Elections as well as the bye-elections in the Ahoada East II and Khana II State Constituencies in Rivers State; Kano Municipal and Ungogo State Constituencies in Kano State or have themselves to blame.
The National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu issued the warning on Friday in Abuja, at the first regular meeting of The Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) organized by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ahead of the FCT and the bye-elections.
Ribadu who was co-chair at the event reiterated that adequate security will be deployed by the Nigerian Police across all polling units especially high risk area.
Represented by Hassan Abdullahi, the Director Internal Security, Office of the National Security Adviser, he said,
“Adequate security personnel will be deployed to polling stations and high-risk electoral wards. Also, political thugs and politicians with violent dispositions will be identified and reprimanded or restrained before, during and after the elections, while vote buyers will be traced and apprehended.
“Political parties, candidates, and their supporters are therefore urged to conduct themselves with decorum and uphold the integrity of the democratic process; any noncompliance will be dealt with severely in accordance with the law”.
In his welcome address INEC Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan reiterated that adequate security is indispensable for the conduct of a transparent election.
According to the INEC boss, “Security agencies must, therefore, up the ante in planning, deployment, intelligence gathering and inter-agency coordination, to ensure that every electoral activity is conducted in a safe, peaceful and credible environment”.
While stressing that all security agencies must synergize to provide security at all polling units he added, “elections succeed when institutions work in harmony. INEC will continue to rely on your professionalism, neutrality and commitment to duty. The credibility of our elections, and indeed our democracy, depends largely on your ability to secure the electoral process from start to finish”.
The Inspector General of Polce, ICP Kayode Egbetokun in his address pledged that The Nigeria Police, the lead security agency, will provide the necessary security personnel during the election.
Represented by CP Abayomi Shogunle he said, “That the Nigerian police force under its leadership will continue to deploy massively for all elections across the country, and the purpose of this is to ensure that elections are violent and free at this point, and will continue to do this in collaboration with other security agencies that are members of this committee.
“Again, the Inspector General of Police has also directed me to inform this gathering that the Nigerian police force will continue to give adequate security to all INEC staff, facilities and materials across the country”.
