ALL is set for the governorship election in Ekiti State on Saturday. The Independent National Electoral Commission has recruited 7,941 ad hoc electoral personnel for the assignment, with its Chairman, Attahiru Jega, singing a redemption song. The mood of the police is not different either. They have deployed more security personnel and materials in the state to reinforce existing security measures. Surveillance helicopters, Armoured Personnel Carriers, bomb disposal experts, counter-terrorism team and Police Mobile Force operatives are all part of the sophisticated security set-up to deal with a possible breakdown of law and order. This awesome safety measures are not without reason. The state has an unedifying electoral past, defined by violence and manipulation of results. In 1983, the old Ondo State, of which Ekiti State was a part, went up in flames over election disputes. The Resident Electoral Commissioner for Ekiti State, Ayoka Adebayo, in the 2009 rerun had decried the pressure on her to announce a result that did not bear the imprimatur of the electorate. “They want me to announce fake results. I can’t at my age…I am a Christian. I cannot act against my conscience,” she reportedly said. But she still went ahead to announce a false result that was later upturned by the courts. Two weeks ago, precisely on June 8, Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, boiled as the police fired at a crowd of All Progressives Congress supporters, which resulted in the death of a young man, Taiwo Akinola. The deceased was one of the party loyalists that went to the stadium to “sweep away” the footprints of Peoples Democratic Party members, who had held their rally there the previous day. Add this to violent rhetoric that has underpinned some of the electioneering and why the election is a source of concern becomes clearer. Already, allegations of thumb-printing of ballot papers are rife following the arrests of 11 suspects by security agents a week to the poll. Also persistent are threats of violence and attempt by some authorities to use officialdom to rig the election. However, it behoves all the stakeholders – the political parties, voters, INEC and security agencies – to ensure that the state does not tread its well-known electoral path of dishonour. The election is one of those staggered in the country, as a result of the electoral heist of 2007 that culminated in Election Petitions Tribunals annulling the governorship polls in Ondo, Edo, Adamawa, Sokoto, Kogi, Cross River, Anambra and Bayelsa states. We need to see an umpire and security men that would live above board this time. For INEC, this should start with ensuring that electoral materials are adequate and arrive on time at polling booths, while electoral personnel – from polling clerks, collation officers to the REC – remain neutral. The ignominious role of our security agencies in the 2009 rerun in a few local government areas contributed in no small measure to the mayhem that resulted. It is reassuring that the Inspector- General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, who has relocated to the state, is not oblivious of the heavy burden the assignment has placed on his shoulders. Before he left Abuja for Ado-Ekiti, the IG said, “Knowing what Ekiti is during elections, we have gone a step further to do all the things we are supposed to do in terms of material and human resources…Some of us who had the opportunity to be in Ondo State in 1983 during (the) Omoboriowo election, we knew what had happened, and we are doing everything to ensure that it is prevented.” Now that he is in Ekiti, he should act. Though the election involves 18 political parties, it is clearly a three-horse race, featuring the APC, PDP and Labour Party. We have observed some desperation among some of the contestants, which should not be. The office of the governor should be seen from the prism of service to the people. Having sold their manifestos to the people during electioneering, we expect all the candidates to play the game according to the rules on election day and allow the people to choose who their next governor will be. No elective office is worth the blood of any voter. Unfortunately, because of our politicians’ predilection for crying wolf where none exists, or not conceding defeat when it is obvious they have been rejected at the polls, they goad their misguided supporters, mostly jobless youths, into acts of violence, which invariably some trigger- happy and ill-trained policemen exploit. A critical role of the police in an election is crowd control. With the 766,132 registered voters for the election spread across 177 electoral wards, some crowd-control challenges may abound. There are flashpoints in Ekiti State, which should by now be well-known to security agencies, as politicians are like the leopard that hardly changes its spots. But the firing of a live bullet to a crowd when the life of a policeman is not threatened is a murderous and unprofessional conduct that should not be condoned any more. Any officer who indulges in this sort of breach and wastes human life should not only be fired from the Force, but should be made to face the full wrath of the law. As INEC had failed in recent similar elections to evince its capacity to redefine our warped electoral course, the Ekiti assignment provides it with another litmus test. Punch newspaper.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 07:23:13 +0000