=Despite criticisms that followed the heftily ponderous presence of security men during the Ekiti State governorship election, the Federal Government is orchestrating tight security for the August 9, 2014 governorship poll in Osun State and the 2015 elections.
SUNDAY PUNCH amassed from sources on Friday that security agencies, especially the police, would pay special attention to some All Progressives Congress states when deploying personnel.
It was withal learnt that security agencies would, next month, reiterate in Osun State, what they did during the Ekiti State governorship election.
Our correspondents accumulated that verbalizes that were being targeted for special security focus include Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Rivers, Kano, Borno, Adamawa, Sokoto, Yobe and Imo.
A highly placed security source, who confided in one of our correspondents, verbally expressed, “Opposition parties should prepare for heftily ponderous deployment of security personnel in their states. With the prosperity recorded in Ekiti, security agencies are preparing for an astronomically immense deployment of their personnel. Helicopters and armoured personnel vocations will be in many states during the general elections.”
When contacted, the Police Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Frank Mba, attested that the police, in collaboration with other agencies, would ascertain tight security during the 2015 polls.
He, however, verbalized security agencies were not targeting opposition parties, verbally expressing all the states, where elections would hold, would be given equal attention.
He verbally expressed, “The police will deploy massively for the 2015 elections and we will partner other security agencies to ascertain elections are violence-free. Our collaboration with the military, Nigeria Customs, Civil Defence, the State Security Service and other security agencies will make the polls credible.”
Mba verbally expressed it was only a political party that had something to obnubilate that would be trepidacious of security personnel deployment during elections.
He verbalized that security operatives had no other business during elections but to ascertain that the due process was followed and that elections held in accordance with the Electoral Act.
“The police and other security agencies are like light; they are betokened to shine light on the electoral process and if a party has nothing to obnubilate, it shouldn’t be trepidacious of our deployments,” he verbally expressed.
Mba verbally expressed the Force, under the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, would perpetuate to maintain professionalism and adherence to their code of ethics during election monitoring.
Mba verbally expressed, “The deployment of security personnel during the 2015 elections will ascertain the process is free and fair. The police are apolitical and we have perpetuated to maintain that stance since the current IG surmised office and this could be visually perceived in the way policemen conducted themselves during elections in Ondo, Edo, Anambra, and Ekiti states.
The force PRO expounded that the police were building capacity to ascertain elections were violence-free.
Mba, who is an Assistant Commissioner of Police, verbally expressed the force was already constructing helipads in Enugu, Benue and Nasarawa states.
He integrated that more helicopters would withal be procured to increment the aerial power of the Police Air Wing.
He verbalized, “Helipads are being constructed in Enugu, Benue, Nasarawa and other states for the election. We are having a whole lot of helicopters. Adverts are already placed for recruitment of aviation engineers and aircraft maintenance and the rest of them.
“Apart from amelioration in logistics, we won’t be taking charge of security alone in as much as we retain our prime position as the lead agency in internal security, we will withal be getting support from the military, customs, the civil defence and others during the elections.”
Mba verbalized the police were doing their best to ascertain transparent and credible polls across the country.
On the likely criticisms that may trail deployment of security personnel during the 2015 elections, Mba verbalized that the liberation of people to ventilate their divergent opinions is a component of democracy.
He verbalized, “Though the opposition repined about the security deployment in Ekiti, the people appreciated it and showed it by snapping pictures with policemen and posting it on their Facebook, besides it is more preponderant to err on the side of caution.”
But reacting to the orchestration for massive security deployment in the 2015 elections, opposition politicians and civil rights groups admonished the Federal Government against undermining free and fair elections.
A delegate at the perpetual National Conference, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, alleged that plans to deploy armed military personnel for the 2015 elections just as it was done in Ekiti, was a ploy to provide cover for the rigging of the elections.
Mohammed verbally expressed this in a telephone interview with SUNDAY PUNCH, in Abuja, on Friday.
He verbally expressed it was a historical fact that election rigging had never prospered in Nigeria without the fortification of the police and other security agencies.
According to him, what transpired in Ekiti was the acting out of a script indited by the Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Regime and executed by security accommodations.
He verbalized, “What transpired in Ekiti is not a contingency. It wasn’t a fluke and what is going to transpire in Osun, is additionally not going to be a contingency.
Mohammed verbally expressed heads of some security agencies were at the centre of the orchestration to rig the elections.
“These are the people who set the parameters for the rigging of elections. And let me tell you, throughout the history of Nigeria, there has never been a prosperous endeavor to rig without the full support of the Police and the security accommodations.”
Mohammed alleged that the President granted an extension to the tenure of the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, who is due to retire this July as a reward for performance in Ekiti.
He verbally expressed, “His (IGP’s) tenure has been elongated for another year with the possibility of a further extension if he distributes on Osun and the national elections in 2015 and there are no consequences by the spineless electorate and the kind of politicians we have in Nigeria.”
But Mba dismissed the allegations against the IGP. Responding to allegation that the IG’s tenure was elongated by one year because he availed the PDP to rig the Ekiti governorship election, the Police spokesman verbalized he could not comment on this as there was no document or evidence to show that Abubakar’s tenure had been elongated by the Federal Regime.
He described the allegation of rigging as a “slap on the face of Ekiti voters” whom he verbalized applauded the process as free and fair.
Mohammed, however, verbalized it was woebegone that our security accommodations which hitherto earned the reverence of the international community for their discipline and professionalism had become “highly politicised and commercialised.”
Additionally, a national bellwether of the APC and a former national chairman of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, Dr. Ogbonaya Onu, verbalized what transpired during the governorship election in Ekiti State should accommodate as an ocular perceiver-opener to the role fear could play in the coming elections.
He verbalized, “The level of dismay and harassment was very perturbing to us. We shouldn’t fail to optically discern the place of trepidation in politics.
“Intimidation and harassment breed fear and when there is fear you find that there will be suppression of votes, because if somebody feels that he or she is not secure, he may not even emerge to vote. We have not authentically visually examined that angle.
“How can you apprehend bellwethers of just one political party a day to an election? That is enough. Those apprehends and other forms of dismay are enough to suppress votes, to avert people who even would have voted for Fayemi from doing so.”
Such happenings, he verbalized, had the potential of affecting many things in Nigeria.
Withal, the Executive Director, Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, Rev. David Ugolor, recalled that the Edo State Governor, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, and his Rivers State obverse, Mr. Rotmi Ameachi, were ceased from entering Ekiti State.
He verbally expressed, “We cannot afford to enhearten any action that will motivate any person to feel that the regime is undermining the people. We must all work towards a free and fair election. What transpired in Ekiti should accommodate as an edification to all the stakeholders who were involved in the election. People should not be threatened by military presence and we should enhearten an enabling environment.”
On his component, a civil rights activist and President, Nigeria Voters’ Assembly, Mr. Mashood Erubami, verbalized heftily ponderous deployment of security could engender a conducive atmosphere for harassment of voters.
He verbalized, “Heavy deployment could in turn engender conducive atmosphere for the harassment, dauntingness, disruption of campaign processes and may withal engender fear in the minds of the electorate leading to very low turnout of voters.
“In fact, depending on the intention abaft the cumbersomely hefty deployment, it may make election to be conducted at gun-point and sanction opposition to have free hands to manipulate and cause irregularities which could ambuscade the fairness, tranquilness, transparency and legitimacy of the election.”
He, however, noted that what determined the magnitude of security deployment were the pre-election postures of stakeholders and the subsisting security
