A former Chairman of the Nigerian chapter of
Transparency International, Maj. Gen. Ishola Williams
(retd), has said the Nigeria police is still operating on
its 1949 structure, hence its inability to provide
security for elections in the country.

He therefore called for the scrapping of the Ministry of
Police Affairs and canvassed for the placement of the
force under the Ministry of Interior for effective
supervision.

Speaking at a post-election management review
organised by the CLEEN Foundation on Monday in
Abuja, the retired military officer said it was not right
for the National Security Adviser and the military to be
involved in election security, stressing that this is not
part of their business.

He said, “If well structured, Nigeria would have no
problems with elections. States should organise their
own polls, what is the business of INEC organising
governorship elections? The Nigeria police is still based
on 1949 structure and that is why it cannot provide
election security.

“The Police affairs ministry should be scrapped and the
Force placed under the interior ministry. It should
have a Director-General in charge of intelligence and
general investigation.”

Williams insisted that the Independent National
Electoral Commission erred by involving the NSA and
soldiers in the 2015 polls, noting that in Ghana, for
instance, there is a security coordinating committee
that handles election security.

“In Ghana, they have the security coordinating
committee which oversees election security; the NSA
should not be involved (in elections) at all. When I saw
their budget running into billions, I just shook my
head and wondered what they are doing with such
amount of money,” Williams stated.

According to him, the allegations of rigging that trailed
Ekiti and Osun governorship elections should not have
happened, noting that the deployment of soldiers for
the polls should not have been done since other
security agencies were available to assist the police in
supervising the election.

Williams’ submission was however countered by Prof.
Okey Ibeanu from INEC, who argued that the electoral
agency had a basis in law for allowing the military to
take part in election security.

He also defended the NSA’s involvement in the
elections, stressing that its role was to coordinate the
advisory from the various security agencies in the
country, noting that the deployment of soldiers was to
deter political thugs from disrupting the polls.

The Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, said
there is a lot to be done in terms of organisation and
securing the electoral process, adding that “this is the
time to start planning for 2019 and other staggered
elections like the governorship polls in Bayelsa, Edo,
Ondo, Osun and Kogi States.”

http://www.punchng.com/news/nigeria-police-still-operating-on-1949-structure/

Not Surprised