Military should take orders from INEC – Situation Room – TheNigerialawyer

A coalition of over 70 civil society organisations under the
aegis of Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room has warned against
the deployment of military in the November 15 governorship
elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states.

The election monitoring group, however, said where it would be
necessary to deploy soldiers, they should take instructions from
the Independent National Electoral Commission which could only make
request for their deployment.

The Executive Director, Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre and
Convener, Clement Nwankwo, stated this in an interview with The
PUNCH.

Nwankwo said, “The ideal situation is that the military does not
participate in elections. The police should be fully and properly
equipped to police elections, no matter the terrain. But we know
that we are not there yet.

“What we are really saying at this time is that were the
soldiers to be deployed for election, they should be as requested
by INEC and they should be taking instructions from INEC on where
they are needed.

“Deploying a large number of soldiers as it happened during the
last general elections without accountability and responsibility to
the election management body is unacceptable.

“We have issued our reports from the last election, we expect
that they would have taken lessons from the Election Observation
Report of all the different observer groups, including Situation
Room.

“Particularly, you know we issued a report on Osun State which
had its challenges that discredited that election. So, we are
hoping that all of the lessons and reports from the observer groups
would help INEC to conduct a better election.”