By EMMANUEL OLONIRUHA
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has urged security agencies to raise the bar of professionalism in the Feb. 12 Federal Capital Territory (FCT) area council election and future elections.
National Commissioner and Chairman, Board of the Electoral Institute (TEI), Prof. Abdullahi Zuru, made the call at a two-day election security personnel training for the area council elections, in Abuja on Tuesday.
Zuru urged security personnel to raise their professional conducts as witnessed in recently conducted elections by creating an atmosphere, where citizens would freely cast their votes in the Feb. 12 FCT Area Council election.
Zuru, according to INEC daily bulletin issued in Abuja, said part of the reasons why the Anambra governorship election was adjudged free, fair and credible, was largely attributed to the professional conduct of security agencies.
He challenged the security agencies to raise the bar of professionalism in the forthcoming FCT Area Council and other future elections.
Identifying the voter as King, the TEI Board Chairman said: “we must therefore treat him with all courtesy and respect that he deserves, because democracy is sustained by the voter.”
He added that: “We must create that environment that makes the voter feel free and happy to exercise his franchise”.
Zuru noted that the training provided avenue for the commission to share experiences and lessons learnt from recently conducted elections.
He urged participants to cascade the knowledge gained from the training to their colleagues who would be deployed to secure the electoral space.
INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner for the FCT, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, said the workshop provided the security operatives with the rules of engagement governing the electoral space, as he pointed out that their roles in election was quite different from off election duty.
Bello disclosed thatafter the 2019 general elections, the commission in collaboration with security agences under the aegis of Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), had been identifying and addressing security threats and occasioned intrusion from neighboring states.
He called for synergy between the agencies of ICCES to ensure the FCT elections were conducted in a secure environment.
The Director General (DG) of the Electoral Institute (TEI), Dr Saád Umar, in his remarks, said the purpose of the training was to diversify the knowledge and capacity of the security personnel.
Umar said it was also to equip them to “deliver electoral security services as professionals highlighting the nexus between security and human rights issues as it relates to elections”.
He said: “Adequate security ensures the free movement of electoral staff, voters, candidates, observers and other stakeholders on election day.
“This, in turn adds to the credibility of the electoral process. It is also an important precondition for the deployment of sensitive materials to polling units which increases the level of participation of voters in an election,” Umar said.
The Commissioner of Police (CP) for the FCT, Mr Babaji Sunday, described the training as apt.
Sunday, represented by Assistant Commissioner of Police in FCT, N.A Sabo, said the training sought to prepare the minds of the security personnel on the expectations of them ahead of the election.
Sunday advised all security personnel participating in the Area Council elections to conduct themselves with utmost professionalism and called for synergy among all agencies working to secure the electoral space in the FCT.
He pledged that the agencies would provide maximum security before, during and after the elections.
Similarly, INEC) has advised political parties to respect chosen dates for Ekiti, Osun Governorship Election Primaries, based on the commission’s timetable and schedule of activities.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, made this disclosure at the commission’s first quarterly meeting with political parties for 2022, on Tuesday, in Abuja.
Yakubu also advised party leaders to conduct transparent primaries for the two states elections.
He said that already, many parties had rescheduled their primaries several times, while INEC had earmarked a period of three weeks and four days (i.e. 25 days) for the conduct of the Ekiti governorship primaries.
“For Ekiti , virtually all political parties have decided to hold their primaries in the last 4 days (Jan 26 to Jan. 29). In fact, seven political parties have chosen the last day for their primaries.
“Similarly, no party has so far submitted its list of aspirants, the composition of its electoral panel, or the register of members or list of delegates, depending on the chosen mode for electing its candidates.
“As at yesterday, only one party has indicated the venue for its primaries. I urge you all to do so immediately to enable us to work out the detailed plans for monitoring the primaries.
“All primaries for electing candidates must take place in the constituency where election will hold as required by law.
“In the cases of Ekiti and Osun governorship elections, any primaries conducted outside the two states will not be monitored by the commission and their outcomes will not be accepted.
“This also applies to primaries for bye-elections conducted outside the constituencies,’’ Yakubu said.
On the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Yakubu said that INEC had last week, presented the register of voters to political parties.
He noted that the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) for new registrants, requests for transfers and replacement of cards, had been printed and delivered many weeks ago to INEC FCT office for collection by voters.
He stated that in the next few weeks, INEC would intensify stakeholder engagements, monitoring of campaigns by political parties and preparations for Election Day activities.
“On this note, I want to draw your attention to the distribution of voters to Polling Units in the FCT, particularly the fact that 593 out of 2,822 or 21 per cent of the total, do not have voters.
“This is because voters failed to take advantage of the expansion of access to transfer to these new Polling Units.
“The detailed distribution of voters to Polling Units in the FCT is among the documents in your folders for this meeting.’’
Yakubu assured party leaders that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) would be deployed in the FCT elections, which is the second major election after the Anambra governorship election, held in November.
He saidthe FCT elections which comprised 68 constituencies (six Chairmen and 62 Councillors) was another opportunity to pilot the efficacy of the BVAS in a different geographical, geopolitical and electoral context.
The INEC boss said the constituency covered extensive urban and rural locations, sharing border with five states in the North-Central and North-Eastern parts of the country.
“The same technology will be deployed in all forthcoming bye-elections across the country.
“For all elections going forward, polling unit results will be uploaded in real-time to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal,” he said. (NAN)