Abuja – Retired Maj.-Gen. Ishola Williams, said on Monday in Abuja that the Nigerian army had no business with elections in the country.

Williams, who is the Executive Secretary of an NGO, PANASTRAG said this at a one day post-election Security Management Review forum, organised by CLEEN Foundation in collaboration with the Open Society Initiative West Africa (OSIWA).

He said that in a civilised country, the national security adviser would not have anything to do with elections.

“The military are always neutral when it comes to election matters because they don’t need to show that they support A or B.’’
Williams added that the country’s security body outfits lost their reputation in the last regime due to some activities which played out during the elections in some states.

He said that the army could only advise the election stakeholders such as the government and INEC but not to get involved in the processes.

He said that soldiers had the responsibilities as agents of security to security the territorial integrity of the nation.

“Soldiers have limitations to their rights as soldiers.

“The constitutional responsibility of election security in any country lie in the hands of the police and other para-military such as the civil defence, immigration, prisons and so on.

“If Nigeria was structured properly, there wouldn’t be any problem with holding elections in this country after 50 years of independence.

“The police can only call on army when they have situations that they can no longer handle, only then can the military come in,’’ he said.
Williams decried the present structure of Nigerian police, saying it was similar to that of the 1940 structure.

Mrs kemi Kenyodo, the Executive Director, CLEEN Foundation, said that the aim of the forum was to promote coordinated response to identify security threats that could undermine peace and security during elections in the country.

She said that the reflections from the just concluded general election in Nigeria would allow for a more in-depth discussion of issues.

According to her, “at the end of the 2015 general elections, many observers noted that the level of violence recorded was much lower than anticipated.’’

“The reports on post-election violence experienced in 2015 were not at a high scale and this may lead many to think that Nigeria has overcome the internal and external factors leading to electoral violence.’’

Also speaking at the forum, the Inspector General of Police represented by Commissioner of Police, Mr Fatai Owoseni said that the achievements recorded by INEC and the security agencies were truly worthy of recommendation.

He assured that Nigerians that the police force would not rest on its oars as more efforts were being carried out to achieve this target.
Owoseni said that a lot more work was in the pipeline in terms of organising and securing the electoral process.

The police commissioner said that it was time to start planning for 2019 and other staggered elections like the governorship elections in Bayelsa, Edo, Ondo, Osun and Kogi States.
“I believe that the outcome of this workshop will be beneficial to us and the country at large,” he said. (NAN)