Ugochukwu Emezue, Senior Special Adviser to the Abia state Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu on Media and Publicity, has berated the participation of the Nigerian Army in the just-concluded 2019 general elections.
Emezue, who spoke with newsmen, in Umuahia on Tuesday, warned that the involvement of the military in the election, posed a serious threat to the political stability of Nigeria, and also the avowed quest by well meaning Nigerians to achieve free, fair and transparent electoral process in the country.
His words, “I believe that the job of the military is to be in the barracks, to defend the territorial integrity of Nigeria not to be involved anyway in the election. They are not supposed to come anywhere close to any election. What it then means is that the lead agency in terms of security which is the police must be given the opportunity to do their job.
“What we are seeing Nigeria, a situation where the police relegated to the background, being under funded and the rest of them. And the military being given the opportunity to take charge of the election which is very wrong. In civilized world, you don’t see such thing happen.
“But here in Nigeria, a situation where the military take charge, to the extent, in Rivers state. You see what Rivers people are experiencing, where they were alleged to have taken over collation centre, which of course, led to the suspension of that.
“I’m happy that the military command has set up investigation into that. I believe, it will help us to now get to the root of the matter. The military should leave election matters. I believe, we should look at it. The national Assembly was looking into it the other day, but, because of partisan relationship, when Senator Dino Melaye brought that issue. I don’t know why we are shying away from it. We should talk about it.
“The police should be given opportunity. And if you really want to have a kind of force, you can equip the mobile police, but, not necessarily they are coming to the polling units. They can be patrolling, whenever there is problem, they can call them. But for the military, is an aberration.”
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