Chairman of the Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC Prof Attahiru Jega yesterday faulted
the use of hooded security men during the August 9
governorship election in Osun State.
Beside, he spoke of how an attempt to rig the Ogun
State governorship.
Describing the trend as “worrisome, he said masked
men would not be allowed for next year’s general
elections as he also accused the security men deployed
in OsunState of being “overzealous”.
Department of State Security (DSS) spokesperson
Marylyn Ogar admitted that some of the DSS men
deployed for the election wore hoods. Many other
hooded troops in military fatigue, whose identities were
unknown, were also seen in action before and during the
election.
“Any security personnel deployed for the election must
be someone identifiable,” Jega said during a session
with local and international Civil Society Organisations,
CSOs, involved in monitoring elections yesterday in
Abuja.
Jega added: “In recent times, we have witnessed an
increased presence of hooded security operatives during
elections. This is an emerging trend which is highly
worrisome and which needs to be addressed in good
time. Security agents who are deployed on election
duties should not be masked, the doctrine of
transparency requires that they should be identifiable.
“We will not allow such persons during the 2015
elections. Any security personnel deployed for the
election must be someone identifiable such that if
anything happens we will be able to know who to hold
responsible”, Jega added.
Speaking on the overzealousness of some of the security
men deployed, Jega said some adhoc employees of the
commission and nine NYSC members, who were
engaged as ad-hoc officials, were erroneously arrested
and kept in detention for over 12 hours.
He said that they were arrested around 9p.m on the eve
of the election while on their way to the Registration
Area Centres (RACs), which was provided for them by
the Commission.
“They were not released until about 6am the next day, a
situation that almost disrupted the distribution of
electoral materials in some areas.
“It was sheer luck that we still managed to open the
polling units early, otherwise, there would have been
disaster. We took a serious view of that and reported
the matter to all the appropriate authorities because at
a point we became worried that some persons wanted
to undermine our effort”.
But Jega said the perceived over militarisation of the
just Ekiti and Osun governorship elections, did not deter
the voters from turning out to vote for their candidates.
“In fact, the two elections proved that there was a high
correlation between the massive deployment of security
and the willingness of people to come out and vote.
“Apart from over-zealousness on the part of some of the
security men on the field, we discovered that people
actually felt more secured to exercise their franchise.
The key lesson our politicians need to learn from the
two elections is that the era has gone when they relied
on corrupt electoral officers or security agents to
manipulate elections.
“In this era, any politician that intends to win election
must reach out and convince the voters, be it through
‘stomach-infrastructure’ or otherwise. The only
guarantee to win election now is to let the voters come
out to vote for you, which in turn means that you must
first of all convince them on your credibility,” he said
Jega alleged that some “unscrupulous elements”,
attempted to use a software, to rig the Osun election
won by Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the APC.
“We discovered that some people had invaded our
system with software that was reducing age on the
register. Thank God that we discovered it before it was
too late and had to put aside the register and produced
another one, even though it was at a very high cost.
“Despite the challenge, the Osun State election has been
adjudged as one of the best we have conducted recently
when judged by all variables for assessing a successful
election. Though the election was not perfect, we did a
lot to improve on the Ekiti election.
“It is also worthy to mention that before the Osun
election, security agents were able to identify thugs that
were imported into the state by politicians. The security
men successfully cordoned the building where the thugs
were kept and prevented them from leaving the
compound until the election ended.”
Jega said over 70 per cent of the voters in Osun State
collected their Permanent Voters Card, PVC, unlike in
Ekiti State where only about 64 per cent of the voters
collected the cards.
On Adamawa by-election, Jega, said though it came as
an emergency, the electoral body would do everything
possible to ensure a free, fair and credible poll.
He said that some of the prospective voters had been
displaced from their homes because of the insurgency in
the state, which is among the three under a state of
emergency.
“Nobody had planned for election in Adamawa State, but
with the little time we have, we are preparing to make it
much better than that of Osun,” Jega added.
Likewise, the INEC boss said the Commission was
seeking ways to reduce the high percentage of rejected
votes as was witnessed in Ekiti and Osun states.
”It is a major issue that we have to look into because
we received complaints that so many ballots were
rejected on the basis that the thumb prints narrowly
crossed the line.
“The truth is that we have a rule that allows the
electoral officer to reject such ballot. In some advanced
countries, they consider whether or not about 50 per
cent of the thumb print was inside the provided space.
We did not want to allow the use of discretion by our
staff, which was why we made the rule. However, in
view of the complaints, we will study this issue of
rejected votes and see what we can do about it.”
He said INEC had concluded plans to increase the
number of polling units ahead of the 2015 general
elections, adding that all the polling units currently
situated in private residences will be re-located to
public places before the election.
”By 2015, we don’t want any polling unit to be more
than 500 on average”, he said.
The ‘Situation Room,’ organised by the Police and Legal
Advocacy Centre(PLAC), is aimed at providing a
platform for the electoral body to interface with the
CSO’s.
Reacting to Jega’s speech, Lagos lawyer Femi Falana
(SAN), said: “Let the SSS which has performed very well
in fighting the Boko Haram menace, face that national
task and allow the police to carry out the duty of
maintaining law and order during elections”

Despite the whole Militarization, Osun people didn't accept to intimidated, BUT voted for their right choice. Condemning it now is like Campaign after election BUT..... I just know Dia ris God in everything we do...

The new face of PDP rigging. Unfortunately, they met their match in Osun electorates.

How shameless PDP led FG can be
They used masked DSS men
Arrested Opposition members and APC sympathisers
They arrested corp Members
And attempted to rig the process...

Thank You Jega, you are indeed a man of honor. You are not like Maurice Iwu that supervised the 2007 sham.

barcanista: How shameless PDP led FG can be
They used masked DSS men
Arrested Opposition members and APC sympathisers
They arrested corp Members
And attempted to rig the process...

Thank You Jega, you are indeed a man of honor. You are not like Maurice Iwu that supervised the 2007 sham.

Have you defected? I thought you were PDP biased.

glory2glory:

Have you defected? I thought you were PDP biased.

long time!!! I defected from the pdp and became apolitical when I heard of Stella Odua's saga. I can't support a fraudulent government and party. I made various posts/comments that "should Odua go scot free I will not only vote against Jonathan but I wl mobilise against him". Btw that period and July, I've been giving unbiased opinion. I realise that I share the same Progressive ideology with the APC Team as well as the need to rescue Nigeria from the deceitful ruling party. About a month or so, I publicly declared for the APC and its been heart-warming. Are you a progressive?

barcanista: long time!!! I defected from the pdp and became apolitical when I heard of Stella Odua's saga. I can't support a fraudulent government and party. I made various posts/comments that "should Odua go scot free I will not only vote against Jonathan but I wl mobilise against him". Btw that period and July, I've been giving unbiased opinion. I realise that I share the same Progressive ideology with the APC Team as well as the need to rescue Nigeria from the deceitful ruling party. About a month or so, I publicly declared for the APC and its been heart-warming. Are you a progressive?

Yes o!. We need change. The corruption under this government is terrible. Problem is, most Nigerians don't know what they want. Many of those who defend Gej do so for selfish reasons.

glory2glory:

Yes o!. We need change. The corruption under this government is terrible. Problem is, most Nigerians don't know what they want. Many of those who defend Gej do so for selfish reasons.

many do it 4 tribalism and out of hate. Like you said, they dnt knw what they want

While we thank God that Osun people withstood the marauders in hood yet i am somewhat unhappy that Jega is just talking about this issue after the election. If PDP had used those accursed never-do-wells to their advantage and won the election willy-nilly,Jega will not be here sermonising about their undesirability