April polls: INEC plans special security for Ogun, Katsina, others

By Fidelis Soriwei and John Alechenu, Abuja

Saturday, 12 Feb 2011


Disturbed by the growing political tension in some of the states of the federation, the Independent National Electoral Commission has taken precautionary measures by making state-specific security arrangements for next month’s general elections.


SATURDAY PUNCH investigations showed that Ogun, Katsina, Oyo, Abia, Enugu, Borno and Niger states were leading the number of states that had been pencilled down for special security attention in the elections.


It was gathered that those in charge of security for the elections were engrossed in mapping out strategies to deal with states that had recurrent security challenges not necessarily related to the elections, and the others, which have become turbulent because of the irreconcilable differences and desperation of the key political figures.


Plateau, Bauchi, and others are said to be under this category with such ethno-religious crisis, while Ogun, Katsina, Oyo, Abia, Enugu, Niger fall under the category of states expected to be problematic because of the serious political disagreements between the key political actors there.


It was learnt that the likelihood of an appreciable military presence in the peace process during the elections in the affected states would be on the high side to ensure that the desire of INEC to create an atmosphere conducive to credible elections was realised.


An INEC official told SATURDAY PUNCH on Friday in Abuja that the chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, was utilising the opportunity of an inter-agency security committee put in place by the commission to ensure an effective coordination of security operatives on electoral duties in April.


The Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, which came into being after an INEC workshop entitled, Security Challenges of Election Management, in October 2010, was designed to create a platform to deal with the recurrent issue of insecurity during the polls.


The committee include the representatives of the three services of the Nigeria Armed Forces – the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Navy, the Nigeria Air Force, the office of the National Security Adviser, the Nigeria Police, the Nigerian Immigration Service and the Federal Road Safety Corps.


However, the commission is silent on the manner of military involvement and how they would be deployed during the elections.


The Chief Press Secretary to the chairman of INEC, Mr. Kayode Idowu, did not make specific comments on the security arrangements in place to check anarchy in April.


He said that the military, who are a part of the ICCESS, were expected to work alongside other security agencies to keep the peace during the elections.


He said, “You are asking a leading question, because you want me to, as I said, the military is part of it. That much is known, the military is part of ICCESS: the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the Customs, the Immigration, all of them are part of ICCESS.


“And so, as I said, they are playing complementary roles. But for me to tell you the military will be deployed in Ogun etc, I won’t say that. If you are expecting me to say that, I won’t say that. But I can assure you that ICCESS has taken care of that.”


It was learnt that as part of the efforts to address the issue of insecurity during the elections, Jega and those in charge of security would adopt a new approach to tackle election-related security issues.


Idowu said that all the identified flashpoints would be dealt with in line with the security issues identified with each state.


According to him, ICCESS was established at the federal and state levels to make a clean break from the tradition of the past, when uniform security plans were made for the entire country at the national level without any special attention to the security issues identified with specific communities.


He said that ICCESS was put in place to coordinate the operations of the various military and paramilitary bodies and come up with specific plans for the various areas with due emphasis on the prevailing security issues.


He said, “The whole purpose of the inter-agency consultative committee is to harmonise the operational plan by all the military and paramilitary agencies and to customise operational plans for respective states.


“For instance, the initiators of ICCESS require the local committee, because there is ICCESS at the national level, there is ICCESS at the state, there is ICCESS at the local government level.


“But instead of the practice in the past, where plans were just made at the national level and passed down to the local level, the ICCESS initiative is to get the people on the ground to give a scenario of the situation there and propose plans on that basis, which will now be adopted and factored into the general operations at the national level.


“What that means is that for flashpoints that you have mentioned, there are customised operational plans for them. There are customised operational plans drawn up by people on the ground who know what it takes. And it is on that basis that operational plans have been drawn up for the elections.


“What that means is that the operational plans for Lagos will certainly be different from the operational plans for Plateau or for Borno or for Bauchi because each plan has taken cognisance of the locality.”


He said that with the new plan under ICCESS, all the military and paramilitary bodies that would be drafted for election duties would be more effective with their roles well harmonised.


Idowu explained that the police, military and para-military outfits had been assigned specific roles, which they had all agreed to. This, he added, would reduce areas of duplication, conflict and cost.


He said that while the security situation preceding the elections could not be said to be out of control, the commission was worried about the attitude of the politicians involved in the contest for political offices. Idowu said that the activities of the politicians indicated that the right lessons had not been learnt from the errors of the past by some players.


He said that the attitude of the politicians was largely responsible for the decision of the commission to adopt a fresh angle to security during the April elections.

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