One of the questions on the lips of many Nigerians as the people of Ondo State go to the poll to exercise their franchise is the extent to which the security agencies will acquit themselves after what has been variously described by many observer groups in the last Edo election as “an unpleasant experience.”
The deployment of 34,000 (thirty-four thousand) policemen and other security personnel to Ondo State has been praised and condemned in equal measure.
The Police Headquarters in Abuja also announced the deployment of 18 commissioners of police to the 18 local government areas in the state. A police commissioner is manning a local government with the assistance of other senior officers.
The security agents are to man the 203 wards and 3,933 polling units in the state.
Read also: Ondo votes to elect new governor
Apart from the officially deployed security personnel, the security aides of state governors, chairmen of many political parties and members of the National Assembly who are in the state to solidarise with the candidates of their parties, have also bloated the number.
While some observers believe that the heavy presence of security men may deter some people in the state from going out to exercise their franchise, some others are of the opinion that such huge presence could bolster people’s confidence and gives the assurance that the exercise would be violence-free.
Kingsley Uzoma, a security consultant, said: “Has the heavy presence of policemen at elections deterred electoral violence? The answer may be yes, to a great extent; but has that ensured the credibility of the elections, the answer is no.”
Another observer, Anthony Aru, a data analyst, said that it was wrong to militarise a state on account of governorship election. He blamed it on the desperation of politicians to win at all cost.
“From what has been seen in the past, while the heavy presence of security personnel ensured that the exercise went peacefully, the credibility of the exercise in terms of the actual result declared at the end of the day has always been a concern. It is even said that some of the personnel yield themselves as instrument to perpetrate electoral heist in favour of some candidates. So, I will say that it is wrong to ‘militarise’ a state in the name of election. That goes to show how we have made no progress after many years of organizing elections. In fact, things are getting worse and worse,” Aru said.
Read also: All eyes on INEC, security agents as Ondo voters decide next governor
The observers strongly believed that the transparency and impartiality of the security personnel in the discharge of their duties in Ondo would help in the credibility of the exercise.
While deploying the personnel, the police apparatchiks had pledged to be professional in carrying out their activities in Ondo.
Recall that the security team that went to Edo for the last gubernatorial election were roundly criticised by some observer groups that believed they were not impartial in their activities.
Twenty-five observer groups had, in a statement signed by Rose Akhigbe, Peter Nwokolo, Anyasor Gabriel and Sunny Elekwa on behalf of the groups, said: “We observed that the military and police disrupted the collation of results at the wards and local governments collation centres, including intimidation of INEC officials that collated results contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines. There is significant concern about the credibility of the results collation process.
“INEC, military and police have clearly violated the provision of the Electoral Act 2022 concerning the collation of results in the governorship election. Results were only collated at units and some wards.”
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