The Federal
Government may
defy the Court of
Appeal judgement
barring the use of
soldiers in the
conduct of elections in the country, Saturday
PUNCH has learnt.
A top government official, who pleaded
anonymity, in an interview with one of our
correspondents on Thursday, gave an indication
that President Goodluck Jonathan might order
the deployment of soldiers for the March 28 and
April 11 general elections.
The official was responding to a question on what
step the President will take on the letter written
by the All Progressives Congress in which it called
attention to the court order.
He said there was no issue in the matter as Ekiti
State Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose, had replied the
APC on the matter.
He said the governor’s response was enough.
The Ekiti State governor was quoted on Thursday
to have said Jonathan would continue to deploy
soldiers for elections in the country.
The governor had further said that the APC did
not want the military to be involved in the
elections in order to have the opportunity to
perpetrate violence during the elections.
“It is the constitutional right of President
Goodluck Jonathan to deploy soldiers to provide
security anywhere in Nigeria and not even the
APC allies in the judiciary can take away this
right,” Fayose was quoted as saying.
The governor added in a telephone conversation
with one of our correspondents on Thursday
night that it was the responsibility of the Federal
Government to ensure law and order and protect
the nation’s citizenry.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and
Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, could not be reached
for comments at the time of filing this report.
But the Special Adviser to the President on
Political Matters, Prof. Rufa’i Alkali, who also
spoke to Saturday PUNCH on Thursday,
confirmed the response of the top government
official.
He said military troops would be deployed to
protect the lives and property of Nigerians
before, during and after the elections.
Rufa’i said only people with sinister motive are
afraid of the deployment of troops.
Alkali said, “Soldiers, as far back as when Edo
State Governor, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, was
being elected, were deployed and Oshiomhole
even with his radicalism swallowed his pride and
came to thank the President for supporting the
elections with adequate security.
“Now, look at what happened in Ekiti, when they
lost they were crying but when the military was
also deployed in Osun and they won they kept
quiet.
“I challenge them to say since they didn’t want
the deployment of security for elections, and
soldiers were deployed for the Osun election, I
thought they were going to reject the outcome of
the Osun elections but they didn’t. What the APC
is doing is crass opportunism.”
The Peoples Democratic Party national leadership
refused to comment on the court ruling,
preferring to concede the decision on the type of
security officials to be used for the elections to
the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Olisa
Metuh, in an interview with one of our
correspondents, said the security measure being
planned by the INEC should be enough to
guarantee free, fair and crisis-free elections.
When asked to be specific if he was satisfied with
the Court of Appeal ruling which barred the
deployment of soldiers for elections, he said he
needed to study the judgement first.
Metuh said, “Well, I need to study the judgement
and seek the opinion of our legal adviser. But
suffice to say that we believe that the army is
doing a marvellous job and that by the time we
are due for the elections, there would not be any
security crisis in any part of the country.
“Also, we are of the opinion that any security plan
being put in place by the INEC would be
acceptable and enough to have peaceful
elections.
“We would work with the electoral body to have
free, fair and acceptable elections across the
country.”
Meanwhile, INEC has said that soldiers will not be
deployed at polling units during the elections.
The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman,
Mr. Kayode Idowu, stated this in an electronic
mail exclusively sent to one of our
correspondents on Thursday in Abuja.
Idowu was responding to an enquiry from
Saturday PUNCH on the deployment of the
military for the elections in view of the recent
court judgements barring soldiers’ involvement in
polls.
He acknowledged that the military would provide
peripheral security cordon such as manning entry
points into towns to check the trafficking of arms
that could be used to disrupt the elections.
Idowu said, “They are also positioned in covert
readiness for rapid deployment if there is a
security crisis beyond the capacity of the police to
handle. The military are never near polling units.”
According to him, under the platform of the
Interagency Consultative Committee on Election
Security that was created in 2011, the role of the
military has been limited to providing INEC with
logistics support.
This, he said, included Air Force planes and Navy
boats that will transport election materials over
hazardous or difficult terrains across the country.
He said, “As a matter of fact, all security men at
the polling units are never armed. It is because
malevolent people could exploit this and harm
voters as well as polling officials that the armed
agents are in readiness for rapid deployment.
“(It is) only if occasion warrants it. Luckily,
occasion has not warranted it since this security
design was put in place in 2011.”
The Court of Appeal in Abuja, which affirmed
Governor Fayose of the Peoples Democratic Party
as the winner of the June 21, 2014 governorship
election in Ekiti had described the use of Armed
Forces in the conduct of elections as a violation of
Section 217(2)(c) of the Constitution and Section 1
of the Armed Forces Act.
It cited a judgement delivered by Justice R. M
Aikawa of the Federal High Court in Sokoto on
January 29, 2015 barring the use of the armed
forces in the conduct of elections.
The appellate court therefore barred the use of
the Armed Forces in the conduct of future
elections in the country as such constituted a
violation of both the constitution and the Electoral
Act.
However, the National Publicity Secretary of the
APC, Lai Mohammed, in a phone conversation
with one of our correspondents, questioned
Fayose’s claim that President Jonathan would
deploy soldiers for the forthcoming elections in
spite of the Appeal court ruling.
He alleged that Fayose and the PDP are in
support of the use of the military during the
elections because soldiers had rigged elections
for them in the past.
He said, “Is he (Fayose) the Commander-in-Chief?
Fayose wants the military to be deployed because
he knows that was how the election was rigged
for him. And they (PDP leadership) want the
military to be deployed because the PDP wants
the military to rig elections for them.
“But what we are saying is that the court of
appeal has ruled that the military has no business
in election duties. And we hope that Jonathan will
not only obey that ruling, we will insist that
soldiers are not used.”
When asked what the APC would do should the
Federal Government defy the court ruling by
deploying the military for the elections,
Mohammed said, “When we get to that bridge, we
will know how to cross it.”
In a statement issued on Wednesday, by his
Special Assistant on Public Communications and
New Media, Lere Olayinka, Fayose had argued
that the military was used in governorship
elections in some states not won by the PDP in
the past, including Edo and Ondo.
Also recently, an audio recording surfaced online
alleging that the last governorship election in Ekiti
State was rigged in favour of the eventual winner,
Fayose, with the support of the military.
The audio file released by Sahara Reporters, an
online medium, detailed how Fayose; former
Minister of State for Defence, Mr. Musiliu
Obanikoro; Senator Iyiola Omisore; Minister of
Police Affairs, Mr. Jelili Adesiyan and the military
allegedly rigged the poll.
The audio recording was reportedly made by one
Captain Sagir Koli of the 32nd Artillery Brigade in
the state, who was allegedly present at the
meeting.
The debate on legality of deploying the military in
elections has since become a major subject of
public discourse.
A former Director of Army Legal Services, Col.
Akin Kejawa (retd.), said there are provisions in
the Nigerian constitution and the Armed Forces
Act allowing the deployment of soldiers for
operational use, which includes providing law and
order during elections.
He, however, said the provision as allowed by the
constitution does not give the military the right to
conduct elections.
He said, “Section 217 (2) says one of the duties of
the military is suppressing insurrection and acting
in aid of civil authorities to restore order when
called upon to do so. So if soldiers are deployed
to maintain law and order, that is supported by
both the constitution, as well as the Armed Forces
Act.
“This is the provision that empowers the military
to go out. What we have in Nigeria- Boko Haram-
is a form of insurrection. The military is covered
under the constitution as well as the Armed
Forces Act as long as the soldiers don’t go and be
taking ballot papers.
“The fact that soldiers are present at a polling
centre does not mean that they are conducting
the election. The military is not there to conduct
elections because INEC officials, the
representatives of the parties and the
international observers are there. I don’t think it’s
illegal for the military to be deployed for elections
as long as it is for the maintenance of law and
order.
According to Kejawa, the law also gives the
President the powers to deploy the military in
maintaining law and order in the country,
particularly to aid civil authorities.
He said, “Section 8 (1-2) of the Armed Forces Act
specifically states that the President shall have
power to deploy the armed forces for operational
use. It goes further to state that the President
shall have power to delegate the power to deploy
armed forces for operational use to either the
Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, the
Chief of Naval Staff and that of the Air Force Staff
as the case may be.
“Section 3 ( defines what is meant by the
operational use of the armed forces. It includes
provision of aid to civil power.
“If you go to Section 239 of the Armed Forces Act,
it says where the army provides aid to civil power,
it can never be liable for anything it does, that is,
any act of omission or commission they commit
in the process of providing aid to civil power.
He condemned using the military to intimidate
members of opposition parties, saying the
military should apply professionalism in their
duties.
He said, “I don’t support that the military should
be politicised since they are subject to the
political authorities. The President is the person
who orders the operational use of the military.
“But using the military to intimidate the
opposition is abuse of power. That is where the
professionalism of the military comes in. The
military should not be used to intimidate political
the opponents, when they are maintaining law
and order, it is not the members of a political
party that they are there to protect, but
everybody. So they are not there for political
objective, they are there to perform their
professional duties.”

SOURCE:

SOURCE: www.punchng.com/news/soldiers-for-polls-jonathan-may-defy-appeal-court-order/

He said the governor’s response was enough.
The Ekiti State governor was quoted on Thursday
to have said Jonathan would continue to deploy
soldiers for elections in the country.
The governor had further said that the APC did
not want the military to be involved in the
elections in order to have the opportunity to
perpetrate violence during the elections.

APC want to perpetrate violence during the elections while,
PDP want to rig the elections.

GEJ till 2019!!!

That court ruling in itself is laughable.
With the kind of demo-crazy we practice in Nigeria and the terrorists' scourge around the corner, how the judge happened upon this order is crazy.

if there family members dey part of inec staff or ad-staff will dey say military sud nt be deployed 4 d elections. Mtchew