Human Rights Lawyers: Femi Falana, SAN and Dr Monday Ubani have kicked against the involvement of the Military in last Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections.

They have also called for the need for the Police to take full charge of security in the Governorship and State House of Assembly elections on March 11, 2023, being the lead security agency.

This is just as representatives of the Nigerian youths: Nigerian rapper, Folarin Falana popularly called Falz and comedian Debo Adebayo, popularly known as Mr Macaroni, have urged the Police to ensure that a repeat of attack or threats of voters by political thugs did not occur next week Saturday.

These positions were made yesterday at a stakeholder meeting organized by the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Police Command, CP Idowu Owohunwa, to review the current security developments in the aftermath of last Saturday’s elections in Lagos and the wide apprehension emanating thereof.

Falana who did not hide his consternation over the presence of armed Military personnel at designated places in Lagos during the election pointed out that the exercise was a civil one which did not warrant the Military’s involvement.

According to him: “I am opposed to the involvement of soldiers in monitoring elections. Under a democratic society, it is the duty of the Police to do so. I recall 12 years ago when the then Chief of Army Staff announced that soldiers would be on the street to check the identity of persons. I went to court, I won the case and the court ruled that apart from the North-East where counterinsurgency was ongoing, they should not be on the streets and that if there was any threat on the street, it was the duty of the Police to handle it. To whom much is given, much is expected”.

While charging the Police to be prepared for next Saturday’s elections, he assured leaders of different ethnic groups present, to encourage their members to go vote next week Saturday, he promised to press charges against anyone who harasses them.

While corroborating Falana’s stance on what he described as over-militarization of the election’s exercise Dr Ubani said the election also fell short of people’s expectations, owing to the threats and pockets of ballot snatching recorded in Lagos.

He, therefore, advised the incoming government to address this issue of miscreants in Lagos, by taking them off the streets.

He said: “ Treating a security situation is not about the guns you have or policemen, there are some systemic problems you need to address and one of them is lack of welfare, lack of employment and education. Government should not in any way work in partnership with area boys because they partner with them and it is not healthy. Government must take them out of the streets by getting them employed”.

Also speaking, Right Activist, Dr Joe-Okei Odumakin, faulted the INEC for the lapses witnessed in last Saturday’s election. She advised the Police to ensure that political thugs were not killed but arrested, to find out who their bosses are.

For Falz, Mr Marcaroni and leaders of different ethnic groups urged the Commissioner of Police to ensure that ballot boxes were not stolen next week Saturday and that he should ensure he was not influenced by politicians.

While the Igbos leaders in particular said their members were gripped with trepidation over threats of attacks following insinuations that they did not vote for the President-elect, they appealed to CP Owohunwa to ensure the security of their lives and properties.

But the duo of Hon. Mbonu Geofrey and Eze Ndigbo Ikeja, Eze Uche Dimgba described some of the news making the rounds on social media as rumour by faceless individuals to incite hoodlums against the Igbos.

Noting that Igbos were peace-loving and were mainly businessmen and women and not politicians, Dimgba appealed to the CP, “ use your good office to protect Igbo traders. Some of them have not gone to the market because of fear of attack. We need to live in peace. We do not want war “

In response, the Commissioner of Police assured that the Command would do all within its capacity to ensure the protection of everyone in Lagos state, irrespective of their tribes, reminding that it was the constitutional responsibility of the Police.

He explained that the meeting was intended to bridge the communication gap, in order to arrive at a consensus “in our understanding of current security issues and present a common front to proactively douse undue tensions that could snowball into a major threat to public peace if not promptly mitigated through a multi-stakeholder interactive forum with highly respected personalities like all of you here assembled who are known for your unwavering patriotism, rationality in reasoning, and the courage and foresight to place the overriding security interest of Lagos State above other mundane, momentary and emotional considerations.

Seventy distress calls received “This has become imperative granted that from the Police operational perspective, since the conclusion of the exercise on Saturday 25th February 2023, we have responded to not less than seventy security-related callouts by Lagosians.

‘Instructively, however, nearly eighty per cent of such presumed distress calls were found to be informed by false feedbacks that were largely informed by apprehension and misinformation and fueled by fake news from elements that seem to be bent on feasting on the post-election tension to destabilise the peace and order in Lagos State for inexplicable reasons.

“The few instances that turned out to be real were largely attempts by misguided local urchins to threaten citizens at specific locations. Such were localized, uncoordinated, and unpremeditated and were all promptly mitigated by the Police while several arrests were made. In addition, we also upscaled our deployments across all identified flashpoints and vulnerable localities while also sustaining patrols and visibility policing across the public space in order to reassure Lagosians of their safety and deter possible mischief makers from manifesting any plan that might be inimical to peace and security across the State.

“While all these efforts are being emplaced, a major challenge remains the genuine fear of crime by Lagosians on the one hand and the manipulation of the media space by faceless elements to spread fake news that could fuel apprehension, sense of insecurity, and engender major security threat. Regardless of the reality on ground, some facts remain fundamental.

“These are that firstly, as the home to all, Lagos and all Lagosians desire and deserve peace. Secondly, the task of guaranteeing peace isn’t for the Police and other law enforcement agencies alone. It is a collective responsibility in which the commitment, trust and partnership of all Lagosians across all backgrounds, creed, or gender remain the most critical in the security value chain.

“Thirdly, evolving a strong communication framework in which the police can be held accountable and the citizens, as represented by the strategic players that are here seated, can also advance their concerns, and commit to fulfilling their obligations towards complementing the Police in the common task of securing the public space is also essential in the process.

“In convening this meeting, therefore, I hold the firm professional conviction that the best policing strategy is one that is founded on the principle of inclusivity, trust, public consent, collaboration and bridging of the gap between the Police and the citizens for optimal and cost-effective law enforcement service delivery. Indeed, by involving the policed communities and strategic players in the policing decision-making process, we are merely giving effect to Robert Peels Principles of Policing which emphasise that ‘the people are the police and the police are the people’. The import of this, therefore, is that while the deployment of lethal response to policing might be statutorily permissible to enforce public security, the option of prevention through meaningful communal engagement remains, for my police leadership, the most preferable model.

“The idea is that through this initiative, we can jointly identify tensions between the Police and citizens and promptly address them before they snowball to crisis level. The PCT will be a proactive forum for police public relations, early threat identification, crime management and inter-citizen tension for the purpose of prompt and all-inclusive mitigation. I do expect that one of the resolutions to be reached at the end of this interactive section will be to encourage us to give effect to this plan and I will be disposed to engaging further on the most effective format to ensure that the object of this initiative is seamlessly attained”, the CP stated.(Vanguard)