By: Olalekan Olabulo
A former Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mike Okiro, has charged IGP Alkali Baba and the Service Chiefs to take responsibility for any violence act that happens in polling units across the country during the next gubernatorial and states house of assembly elections.
Okiro, who was also a former Chairman of Police Service Commission (PSC), while speaking with newsmen on Thursday in Lagos, stated that it has become very important to speak on the last elections that were marred with irregularities.
The former police boss charged the IGP to deal decisively with any policeman who watches as thugs perpetrating evil at polling units.
According to Okiro, policemen are not posted to the polling units to watch hoodlums perpetrating crime, but to take action against criminals.
The former IGP also advised journalists reporting any ugly event, such as snatching of ballot boxes or destroying ballot papers or policemen compromising to indicate date and location of the reported incident in their reports, for easy verification by security agencies.
Okiro said ” Having closely monitored with keen interest the goings on before, and during the 2023 general elections which kicked off with the Presidential and National Assembly polls on February 25, 2023, it has become expedient for me to publicly air my views concerning the polls.”
He continued that “This is in recognition of the fact that Nigerians, and indeed, the international community are equally watching with profound interest how open, free and fair or the contrary the conduct of the election is turning out as it will determine how the aftermath (final conduct and outcome) of the polls will burnish or sully the image of the country locally and internationally.
“Many critics, including international observers that monitored the February 25, 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections, described the process as flawed and a travesty to democracy.”
“While the election was peaceful in some areas, the conduct was marred by widespread violence, intimidation of and forcefully preventing voters one way or the other from casting their ballots for the candidates of their choice.”
The former PSC boss ” Some observers, for example, said they witnessed at least 135 critical incidents involving but not limited to the seizure or snatching of ballot boxes by brazen armed gangs and political thugs, vote buying, incredibly long delays and related election irregularities that undermined the freeness, fairness and credibility and legitimacy of the poll. ”
He added that “All of these were seen to have culminated in the delay in uploading results from each of the 176,000 polling units in the country to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC’s) portal.”
“What strikes me the most in all of this, and which I consider objectionable and roundly condemnable, as a trained security officer, is the election violence and voter intimidation, especially the use of gunmen and thugs to harass, scare away voters and election officials, as well as the snatching of ballot boxes.
“Sadly, some policemen were accused of watching helplessly while the violence was orchestrated. In some domains, certain persons were strongly accused of dishing out threats to voters to vote for certain candidates against their conscience or face dire consequences, like being driven away from the parts of the country they chose to live and do their business. In some other areas, the properties of Nigerians are being willfully destroyed ostensibly to cow them to vote for candidates that are not their choice. Should such conducts still be trailing Nigeria in the 21st Century?”
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