Defence chief justifies involvement of military in 2019 elections

Abayomi Olonisakin, chief of defence staff (CDS), has justified
the military involvement in the 2019 general election, saying it
was part of their constitutional duties.

Olonisakin made this known at the ongoing orientation programme
for senators-elect and members of the house of
representatives-elect in Abuja on Thursday.

The military involvement in the elections had been widely
criticised as unconstitutional and a wrong move to scare voters
away from participating in the electoral process.

In Rivers, for instance, soldiers ended up disrupting the
collation, forcing the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) to halt the process.

The electoral body had also said soldiers have no business with
the security process in elections, unless if invited by the police
to assist.

But the CDS said the various military operations carried out in
various parts of the country were as a result of the security
challenges identified in the build up of the polls.

“The armed forces of Nigeria derived its authority from section
217 of the 1999 constitution which provides for the armed forces of
Nigeria comprising of the Nigerian army, the Nigeria navy and the
Nigeria airforce,” said Olonisakin.

“During the just concluded 2019 general elections, the success
of the electoral process was almost hampered by the security in
some parts of the country. Many crises prone areas were properly
maned by security services to ensure that the electorate were
secured enough to carry out their civic duties of electing
candidates of their choices.

“(But) there have been various arguments by different positions
of political parties and other stakeholders of the legality and
otherwise of the military in support of the civic authority in the
election process. A critical area of support that was provided and
perhaps not very visible to the public is the deployment of
military logistics capabilities, especially naval and air access to
support the movement of materials across the country.

“I need to reiterate that this deployment is in line with
constitutional role of the armed forces of Nigeria as earlier
stated.

“Even in the last general election, the security situation in
the country during the election process is better imagined if the
military had not been deployed to perform their secondary
responsibility, thus the effect of security on governance is an
important aspect that lawmakers, military personnel and the civil
public need to understand in other to make the right
decisions.”