Group scores security arrangement on 2015 presidential, national Assembly elections high

Emeka Ibemere

An observer group in the 2015 presidential and National elections has scored the election as best so far since the democratic journey took off in Nigeria.

Aside the elections, the group also praised the conduct of security agencies and other support groups that monitored the elections.

According to the CLEEN Foundation, an organisation that has followed the election process so far, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, officers and their adhoc officials were punctual at their duty posts. CLEEN Foundation has in every election since 2003, being deploying observers during the elections in Nigeria.

During the Presidential and National Assembly elections held on Saturday 28Th March, 2015, CLEEN Foundation deployed observers. CLEEN Foundation said they also had the support from Justice for All (J4A) Program of UK Department for International Development (DFID), before and during the process of the election.

Newswatch Times gathered that CLEEN Foundation recruited, trained and mobilised a team of 512 election observers to observe the conduct of security personnel in order to measure their effectiveness and adherence to the benchmark of acceptable behaviour.

In a report made available to our correspondent by the organisation on the assessment of the first batch of the election, the Foundation printed and circulated posters and flyers of the abridged version of the Police Service Commission’s Guidelines for the Conduct of Security Personnel on Election Duty, with the aim of enlightening the police and the general public in the important exercise and to provide the public with hot-lines for complaints, report and commendation on the general conduct of the security personnel and the election proceedings in general.

According to the interim report on the election released by CLEEN Foundation recently, where the organisation presented its findings during the just concluded presidential and national assembly elections in Nigeria, the election’s security arrangement was prettily good.

In five point observation by the CLEEN Foundation, the group highlights, punctuality and adequacy, civility and impartiality of officers, orderliness and feeling of safety at the polling units, use of force and overall assessment of officers as their yardstick of scoring the security arrangement of the elections.

According to the group, punctuality and adequacy of officers was good as majority of deployed security officials arrived their duty stations before the opening of the polls at 8:00am. The group stated furthermore, that the security officials remained at their posts except for a few short breaks.

On the civility and impartiality of officers, CLEEN Foundation reports that the security officials were observed to be approachable and impartial in their duty.

In terms of orderliness and feeling of safety at the polling units, the group equally observed that majority of polling units were seen to be orderly and most observers felt safe, while the use of force in majority of polling units was observed to be calm and peaceful. “Security agents did not resort to the use of force”, the interim report stated.

“On the overall assessment of officers, observers rated the conduct of the security officials on election duty to be “good”.

CLEEN Foundation therefore recommends that logistics arrangement that would enable prompt commencement and effective administration of voting at polling units should be improved.

 Also, they called for the establishment of additional polling units to reduce voters’ crowd and enhance voting processes and effective policing of elections. CLEEN Foundation further stated that continuous improvement in technology driven electoral process by the country should be enhanced.

 “Integration of election security curriculum into the trainings of the Nigeria security personnel, as well as sustaining the monitoring of the conduct of security officials on election duty as mechanism for improved professionalism should be implemented”.

Before the election, ClEEN Foundation, a group that seeks to promote public safety, security and justice through empirical research, legislative advocacy, demonstration programmes and publications in partnership with government, civil society and the private sector released her final report, concerning the security threat assessment towards the 2015 elections.

At the public presentation of the 10^th “Security Threat Assessments: Towards 2015 Elections”, The group said its pertinent to highlight the security threat posed by the election due to violence recorded during the campaigns ahead of the election and recommends the way of tackling it to avoid breach of law and order.

Nengak Daniel Gondyi, Programme Manager, CLEEN Foundation while presenting the survey graphically revealed that out of the 36 States of the federation and Abuja, only few states may be free from violence. He emphasised the key trends that could pose threat ahead of the election booked on March and April.

“This tenth edition of the CLEEN Foundation Security Threat Assessment analyses key trends that could pose threat ahead the rescheduled elections to coming up on March 28 and April 11. The STA provides an analysis of key happenings in the country in the run up to the March and April general elections in Nigeria”, Gondyi stated.

“Although the report is designed to provide updates of trends recorded in February 2015, as much as possible, effort was made to provide updates of key trends up to 15th March 2015. The report provides updates on the following five indicator areas”.

According to him, the troubled distribution of permanent voters’ cards (PVC); campaign hate speech and acts of violence, response to identified threats to election by security agencies, protection of the franchise of internally displaced persons and emergence of alternate security arrangements are unarguably factors that could cause violence.

Speaking further on distribution of permanent voters’ cards (PVC), Gondyi explained that total collection rate of PVCs was 81.22% nationwide as at 12th March 2015. He said Jigawa State has the highest collection with 96% and Gombe recorded 96% while Ogun State recorded the lowest collection with 49% and followed by the Lagos State with 64%.

“In Taraba State, voters in many local communities were lured into giving out their PVCs in anticipation of either securing employment opportunities with the Federal Government or bank loans with the PVCs allegedly serving as collaterals. In Adamawa State, some youths allegedly posing as INEC officials retrieved PVCs from individuals for ‘rectification of problems’ associated with the cards and then disappeared with them”, Gondyi stated.

“Even if the cards cannot be used by those who acquire them, the original owner would have been disenfranchised”.

Gondyi stated that in Ogun State, INEC officials reported to the CLEEN Foundation that 555 PVCs belonging to deceased people were discovered in the state after the commission displayed the names of those that were yet to collect their PVCs.

While Stolen PVCs were returned during a sensitization meeting in Lagos State, other Nigerians are concerned that the country might end up in a scenario where there would not be enough time to use the technology and it would be jettisoned and the elections would be conducted as previous ones.

“In Plateau State for instance, Governor Jonah Jang has dragged the INEC to court on behalf of himself and several citizens of the state that are yet to be given their PVCs. This is viewed more as a deliberate attempt by INEC to disenfranchise these eligible voters”, CLEEN Foundation Programme Manager quipped. On campaign hate speech and acts of violence which has characterised the campaigns so far, Gondyi revealed that political parties, especially the two major People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC), seem to have reached their climax level in terms of campaigns and strategies to win elections across the country.

The survey report said many of the campaigns and strategies adopted by both parties are thought to be unethical and violates the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), and National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) Codes guiding political campaigns.

 The Programme Manager cited an example of the visit by APC’s presidential candidate, General Buhari to Maiduguri on February 9, which led to clashes between two rival youth groups supporting the PDP and APC.

“The clash allegedly resulted in the burning of the popular UTC campaign office of the PDP in Maiduguri by APC supporters. PDP youths were later to retaliate in an alleged attack on Governor Shettima’s convoy, a week later exactly at the same spot of the previous clash”, he observed. However the election suspected to be violence prone went well without crisis.