The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has frowned at the continued redeployment of heads of security agencies days before isolated elections in the country, saying such action hampers effective execution of mutually developed election project plans.
At a consultative meeting with the media in Abuja, weekend, INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, also said the commission had begun talks with Nigeria Prisons Service, NPS, to identify some prisons with high convict population in order to get them registered to vote during elections.
He said: “On deployment of security, we have been demanding some time that security for elections should be strategically deployed. It is not just the numbers that you deploy in the states, it is where the security personnel will go to. And, who provides the places where the security should go to?
“It should be the commission. We know where the wards and polling units are; we know where all our collation centres and what have you are, therefore, it is on the basis of the information that we provide that the security agencies should tailor their deployment.
“Outside that, they can then do security risk assessment and deploy even in places where elections are not holding. We have been discussing this matter with the Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, ICCES.
‘’You know as a commission, we also do our risk assessment before every election and we share this information with the security agencies.
“I have managed and I hope we succeed, for the first time in a long time, that the Commissioner of Police is not going to be redeployed before the election in Ekiti State. ‘’Sometimes, the commissioner that you have worked with for months to plan the election is suddenly moved out on election day and they bring in somebody, yes he might be a professional, but certainly he has not been part of the preparations for the elections.”
‘’I also learned that they are going to leave the Area Commanders, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, but we have not heard about the deployment of the DPOs.
“Sometimes I have a good laugh when some security agencies after meeting, would write INEC that they are deploying X number of personnel to a particular state.
‘’That is good, but then I will hear a press conference from the same security agency deploying another X number different from what was written in their letter and after the elections, there is usually a report that comes to me, and the report would mention another figure.
‘’But the most important thing is to continue to work with security agencies for strategic deployment on election day. In fact, there is a provision in the amended Electoral Act which places control over security agencies, particularly the Police, on the INEC Chairman for the purpose of an election.
‘’I think we need to test-run the provisions of that law. It was mentioned in the meeting we had with the Inspector General of Police. In principle, it is agreeable. So, we will try and work with the security agencies to see how we can deploy maximally and productively rather than just deploying personnel,” he added.
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