The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu yesterday warned against the danger of electoral violence, saying that it was counter-productive.
According to him, many voters may have decided to stay away from the governorship and house of assembly elections because of intimidation, harassment and violence.
The former Lagos State governor also bemoaned the last minute posting of police officers by the Police Inspector General, Sulaiman Abba, for electoral duty in Lagos, saying that the presence of the Deputy Inspector General, Mathew Mbu, had relegated the Commissioner of Police to an Area Commander.
Tinubu praised the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for organising a peaceful poll.
Tinubu said: “I think INEC has prepared well and organised the election well. The card reader is working, unlike the last time when the card reader was not recognising voters. This time, at first attempt, I was recognised and accredited. The voting process is smooth and the organisation of the voting process is well done. The only thing we will be looking out in the future is something that will help INEC to improve.
“The card reading process is now more dependable, easy and understandable very well. Then, we can just be accredited and go straight to voting. It will reduce the cases of accrediting, going back and not returning to vote or the congestion that is building up at the polling units.”
The APC National Leader accused the police of partisanship, adding that the sudden postings by the Inspector General was suspicious.
He added: “The security situation, to me, is too early to assess. So far, so good. I cannot use the situation in one polling unit to measure the security arrangement. There are reports here and there.
“The alarming one is the lack of police reliability. We heard that the AIG was to take charge of the security and the Commissioner of Police, more or less, relegated to an Area Commander and the DIG is now the Commissioner of Police in charge of elections. That is not good enough in the confidence building process. If there is no reason for it, it should not be possible for anybody, no matter highly placed, to make an oral posting of the police officers.
“We have to remove violence from our body politic. Election is about people and service to the people. That is why democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people. It is not a process of gun and war and violence. It is power by all means necessary that leads to violence. We need to eschew that, allow the process to run its course, nurture the institutions of democracy; respect the rule of law and the lives and property of Nigerians. The right of the people to choose their own leader for a specific period of time should be respected.”
“All these riggings, violence are not necessary. You are talking about low turnout. When there is violence and harassment, there will be low turnout. When there is escalation of violence and the lives of people are threatened, every hour every week, we are given the impression that we are not civilised. We are educated. What is the value of our education? If the police and army are used to terrorise people as the police and army of one man or one party in power, the country is heading for danger. For every action, there will be a reaction.
“Throughout the week, before the election, there were lots of gunshot across the state. That was scaring to the people. That is why they didn’t come out. That is a method of rigging. It is because you are not popular. If you are popular, you will want the crowd to be there and make their choice. The abuse of power in this nation must stop. It takes a commonsense revolution to do that”.
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