…as civil societies put deaths during poll at 260
Senate’ll probe INEC, says Olujimi
Violence not connected to our security budget-INEC
In the aftermath of the crisis-ridden general elections that have just wound up, the Independent National Electoral Commission is now reportedly on the edge, as the Senate is determined to probe how the electoral umpire managed its whopping N53 billion security budget.
Recall that the Senate, on October 16, 2018 approved a sum of N53.2 billion as security budget for the INEC for the 2019 general elections.
But following the bloody turnout of the presidential/National Assembly elections and even governorship elections in states like Rivers, Oyo, Anambra, Kaduna and Imo, among others, tongues have begun to wag that there could be shady deals in the management of INEC’s security budget.
But the Senate, which appropriated the security budget to INEC, is set to embark on an inquest to find out what really went wrong, and if INEC’S spending on security was justifiable.
SENATE’LL PROBE INEC, SAYS OLUJIMI
A senate principal officer, Senator Abiodun Olujimi, who is the Senate Minority Leader, is particularly worried about the violence-prone election in the face of the huge sum voted to INEC to ensure adequate security during the poll.
Speaking to our correspondent, Olujimi, the Ekiti-born female senator, said, “There will be an oversight function on it by the senate. The money voted for INEC as security budget is people’s money, and we all know how there were violent acts across the country in the course of the elections.
“So, INEC may be probed by appropriate anti-graft agencies once the senate commences sitting on the commission’s performance during the election period, and this will happen once we have cause to raise the flag.”
The Senate Committee, it will be recalled, had to cut short its vacation to attend to the issue of national importance in the face of national outcry and allegations that the National Assembly was trying to frustrate the Federal Government from going ahead with the polls as scheduled; all, in the road to the approval of the INEC security budget by the senate.
The approval of the sum of N53.2 billion was sequel to a presentation of the report of the National Assembly Joint Committee on Appropriation at plenary, as the Senate directed that the money should be sourced through virement from both the recurrent and capital components of the Special Intervention Programme captured in the Service Wide Vote of the 2018 Appropriation Act.
While presenting the report of the approval, the Chairman of the committee, Senator Danjuma Goje, said, “The committee, having considered the report of its sub-committees on INEC Security and intelligence, interior and police affairs in respect of the provisions for INEC, NSA, DSS, NSCDC, NIS and NPF, approved the request by President Muhammadu Buhari for passage.”
According to the report, President Buhari had requested N4.3billion for the Office of National Security Adviser and N2.6 billion for the Immigration, among other agencies.
The Senate, however, approved N9.5 billion for the NSA, N2.6 billion for Immigration, N10.2 billion for Department of State Services, N27.3 billion for Nigeria Police Force and N3.6 billion for the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps.
However, worried at the magnitude of violence and the attendant loss of lives witnessed in various parts of the country during the exercise, tongues are already wagging, as to what happened to the money approved to provide security during the polls.
WHAT THE CIVIL SOCIETIES SAY
The widespread violence was widely condemned by the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room on the conduct of the 2019 presidential and National Assembly elections on February 23 2019 in its Third Interim Statement.
The statement read in part, “Situation Room notes with profound sadness, the election-related violence that led to the death of at least 39 Nigerians over the last 48 hours of the elections: Borno State– 4, Bayelsa State – 4, Rivers State – 16, Yobe State- 2, Kogi State-2, Ebonyi – 2, Lagos – 1, Oyo- 1, Delta- 2, Zamfara – 1 and Taraba State- 4.
In Lagos State, there were reports of disruption of voting by suspected political thugs shooting sporadically into the air in some places and setting ballot boxes and paper ablaze.
In the Okota, Isolo and Oshodi suburbs of Lagos, there were reports of violence, some caused by non-arrival or late arrival of INEC officials and materials.
“Situation Room reiterates that no election in Nigeria should cost the life of any citizen and condemns in the strongest term, the lack of empathy, concern and sensitivity by the political class regarding these events.
These recorded deaths followed a trend of serious electoral violence since the beginning of campaigns in October 2018. As at February 23, Situation Room had documented more than 260 politically motivated deaths.
“From reports received by Situation Room, it appears that the deployment of security officers in some instances did not take into consideration, areas that required more security deployment.
According to a report by CLEEN Foundation, there was multi-agency deployment of security personnel, noting that 39 per cent of polling units had three or more security personnel. Reports were also received that 27 per cent of the polling units were under-policed.
Reports also largely showed that security personnel conducted themselves professionally. However, there were cases of police overreach in Imo, Abia and Rivers. In Rivers, an INEC official was reportedly shot by security agents.
CLEEN Foundation documents indicated that 12 per cent of the polling units observed security officers were somewhat partisan.
“Despite the police’s stated preparedness with deployment and adequacy of security, there were shortfalls and gaps, with attendant implications for election security.
“For instance, there was disruption of polls in Abia, Lagos, Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and Ebonyi States, amongst others.
“In Okota, Lagos State, voters were chased away and ballot boxes destroyed. In Oriade, Osun State, ballot papers and boxes were destroyed at the INEC office,” CLEEN Foundation stated.
A security expert, Temitope Olodo, also expressed grave concerns at the magnitude of violence that cast shadows over the general polls.
Olodo, who is also a Preventive Counter Terrorism Consultant based in the United Kingdom, told The Point that there was no way INEC could have justified the huge sum of money approved for it for security purposes during the polls given the violence that accompanied the exercise.
“Far from it, there must be a legislative oversight and the public requires (an explanation) on how the money was spent by the individual agencies,” Olodo told our correspondent.
“I did not see any new vehicle or technology deployed and N53.2 billion can’t be spent on overtime alone. We know many officers were deployed to the states.
“Considering the lack of sufficient physical security on the ground; it is not fit for purpose
“So it can’t be said to have been judiciously utilized, because over 40 people lost their lives and I’m not aware of any other country in Africa that gave their security sector that huge amount, after all the money allocated to them in the budget.”
On what could have gone wrong and what were the things that ought to have been done by INEC but were not done, the security expert said, “Mr. President said that the security services were having fortnight meetings and INEC confirmed that they meet regularly but visible evidence does not correlate.
“I am not aware of a joint security situation with modern technology and use of Artificial Intelligence to monitor, secure and protect lives during the election.
“I am not aware of rapid response unit to reduce crisis, aside the fact the military were implicated by some electorate and political parties of intervening in the electoral process.
“Better co-ordination between security bodies, improved real time intelligence and prosecution that is quick and reliable.”
On the overall performance of INEC in terms of security, Olodo said, “I will give them 50 per cent because they can only work in partnership and not be responsible for security solely. But they can press on the Nigeria Police to create a Commissioner of Police for electoral policing to support the election process and work with the judges to have mobile election tribunals to deal with electoral offences on the election day.”
He, however, has a piece of advice for Nigerians: “It is time for Nigerians to stand as one to say ‘enough is enough’, our vote must count and we must work collectively to develop a framework to demiltarise our election and punish electoral infringement,” he counselled.
Also describing INEC’s security arrangement as not satisfactory, the Managing Director, Angels Guards Securities Ltd, Israel Asigbe, took a swipe at the electoral umpire for inadequate security arrangement during the general elections.
While showering encomiums on the Nigeria Police, Asigbe said the INEC performance in the area of security during the election fell short of expectation.
“INEC’s security arrangement was not satisfactory. INEC deliberately messed up the security arrangements. Monies were just given to the police without specifics and manner in the elections will run.
“Well, I will give kudos to the Nigeria Police, especially the Lagos State Command which had to improvise to meet up to the challenges,” he told The Point
‘VIOLENCE NOT CONNECTED TO INEC’S BUDGET’
However, the INEC Director of Voters Education and Publicity, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, said the commission would not equate violence with the amount budgeted for security.
“We don’t do that,” he told our correspondent in Abuja. “I think the police and the security agencies are in a better position to speak on violence during the election.”
According to Osaze-Uzzi, “We at INEC don’t like violence in our elections because violence and elections don’t go together. Definitely, we don’t support violence and any reasonable person will not support violence.”
*Additional report: Adeleke Adesanya
