BY Ayodele Oluwafemi
Edwin Clark, the convener of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), says Saturday’s LG elections in Rivers state have shown that polls can be conducted successfully in Nigeria without police security.
In a statement on Monday, Clark said Nigerians are now mature enough to manage democratic processes without the interference of the police.
On Saturday, the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) conducted elections into 23 chairmanship and 319 councillorship seats in the state.
Police officers were not present at the polling units during the exercise across the state.
The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) had pulled out of the election owing to the court order restraining it from participating in the exercise.
On September 30, a federal high court in Abuja barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from releasing the voter register to RSIEC.
The court also barred the inspector general of police (IGP) and the Department of State Services (DSS) from providing security for the conduct of the election.
Reacting to the development in a statement on Monday, Clark said the conduct of the Rivers LGA elections in a “fair, fair, and credible manner” was a “remarkable” experience.
The elder statesman commended Siminalayi Fubara, governor of Rivers, and RSIEC for “creating the atmosphere for the conduct of credible elections and for the excellent arrangements that were made”.
“I am particularly glad that the citizens of the state turned out in large numbers to exercise their right to vote,” the statement reads.
“This achievement, despite the deliberate boycott of the police from participating in the elections, demonstrates that the people of Rivers state, and indeed, Nigerians as a whole, are mature and patriotic enough to conduct elections and manage their affairs without interference from the police.
“This is a significant and commendable development because there has never been any election, be it presidential, state, or local government, where the security agencies, particularly the police, were not involved, with significant amounts of public funds expended.
“The fact that a statewide local government election can be conducted in a free, fair, and credible manner without the loss of lives and destruction of property is a remarkable experience.
“How do we reconcile this with the recent governorship election in a neighboring Edo state, where over 40,000 officers and men of the Nigerian police force were deployed, at a huge cost to the government, followed by complaints and contestations at different levels?
“I suggest that the federal government, and indeed, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), should thoroughly examine this development with a view to finding ways to reduce the high electoral expenditures in the country.”
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