The Election Monitor (EM) has said that the next week Saturday’s governorship election in Ekiti State would be the most heavily policed election in Nigeria’s history.
The Coordinator of the EM, Mr. Abiodun Ajijola, stated this yesterday in Abuja at the Public Presentation of ‘The 2018 Ekiti State Governorship Election Observation and Research Guide’.
According to him, the report that the Nigeria Police will deploy 30,000 officers for the July 14 Ekiti State governorship election, is a sharp increase from the 18,000 deployed for the 2014 governorship election in the state.
“What this means is that there will be an average of one policeman to every 30 voters in Ekiti State for this election. In addition there will be 13 to 14 police officers per polling unit. This is unprecedented in any governorship election in the recent past in Nigeria,” he said.
Ajijola whose organisation launched the #GetRegisteredNaija Mobile application, said even with the 18,000 officers deployed in 2014, many said the election was over-militarised.
He also explained the comparison of staggered governorship elections in six states of Ekiti, Bayelsa, Kogi, Edo, Ondo and Anambra where police and other security deployments were lower than the July 14 elections.
He said that while there have been some election violence related issues, the security agencies must be cautious not to aggravate the situation.
“The key issue is not only the number of security personnel but also the impartiality and professional conduct of the officers while on electoral duty, the welfare of the security agents is also key. The Nigeria Police leadership must endeavour to ensure that the welfare of its officers in Ekiti is taken into full consideration and made available on time,” Ajijola said.
He therefore urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to learn from the 2015 General Elections and other plethora of other elections conducted afterward by implementing recommendations arising from these elections.
While urging political actors to play by the rules and avoid all forms of malpractices, especially candidates against threats to peace, he also urged security agencies to act decisively but impartially against wrongdoers.
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