…challenges INEC on general elections

By Caleb Ayansina

ABUJA — CENTRE for Civil Education, popularly known as Transition Monitoring Group, TMG, yesterday, criticised the deployment of the military to police electoral process.
It also challenged the electoral umpire on free and fair election come 2015 general elections.

While calling for civilian-policed election, TMG said electoral umpire should be allowed to give sense of direction on security during election.
Chairman of TMG, Alhaji Ibrahim Zikirulahi, who stated this at the 2014 Biennial General Meeting of the group in Abuja, said elections were not wars that should require such massive deployments.

Describing phenomenon as a strange development to Nigeria’s democracy, Zikirulahi alleged that desperate politicians were responsible for the deployment to satisfy their personal interests.
According to him: “It is the sinister machinations of many desperate politicians, whose resolve to subvert the electoral process that has provided the alibi for the massive militarisation of the electoral environment.”

He explained that the President was a partisan figure, noting that it was the responsibility of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to request for security for elections and not on the prerogative of the President, who was a card carrier of a political party taking part in an election.
He said: “For effective coordination of all security agencies during the polls, we are convinced that INEC should be the institution making requests for security agents to be deployed during election.

“INEC is akin to the proverbial man wearing the shoes, and who consequently knows where it pinches. As the electoral umpire, it should be within its purview to give a sense of direction on how many security agents should be deployed at what place and time.
“The current trend wherein an obviously partisan president makes the call on deployments imperils the credibility of the electoral process.”