Former Inspector General of Police (IG) Mike Okiro (rtd) has urged the Inspector General of Police Alkali Usman and heads of other security agencies to deal decisively with operatives who aided or condoned electoral violence during the Presidential and National Assembly elections across the country.
Specifically, he condemned footages of police operatives seen watching aimlessly while armed thugs unleashed violence on voters and destroyed, carted away polling materials from units.
Okiro, a former Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), said in Lagos at a press conference where he condemned intimidation of voters and acts of violence recorded across the country.
He said that police operatives deployed to secure polling units should be held responsible for any violence, thuggery or disruption of electoral processes to serve as deterrence to others.
Okiro said: “I implore the Inspector General of Police and other Service Chiefs to diligently investigate and decisively deal with security operatives who watch aimlessly while election violence is being committed in their presence by hired gunmen, political thugs and sundry election miscreants and offenders.
“These criminals and their cohorts and principals should be punished if indicted for maligning and downgrading the image of Nigeria and ridiculing the good name of honest and hard-working Nigerians in the International Community.”
The former Police chief said it was imperative for him to air his views because Nigerians and indeed, the international community were keenly observing the exercise, noting that the beauty of democracy was on the freeness, fairness and credible outcome of an election.
Okiro said while the presidential election was peaceful in some areas, its conduct was marred by widespread violence, intimidation of and forceful prevention of voters from voting candidates of their choice.
“Some observers, for example, said they witnessed at least 135 critical incidents involving but not limited to the seizure or snatching of ballot boxes by brazen armed gangs and political thugs, vote buying, incredibly long delays and related election irregularities that undermined the freeness, fairness, credibility and legitimacy of the poll.
“All of these were seen to have culminated in the delay in uploading results from each of the 176,000 polling units in the country to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC’s) portal.
“What strikes me the most in all of this, and which I consider objectionable and roundly condemnable, as a trained security officer, is the election violence and voter-intimidation, especially the use of gunmen and thugs to harass, scare away voters and election officials, as well as the snatching of ballot boxes
“Sadly, some policemen were accused of watching helplessly while the violence was orchestrated. In some domains, certain persons were strongly accused of dishing out threats to voters to vote for certain candidates against their conscience or face dire consequences, like being driven away from the parts of the country they chose to live and do their businesses.
“In some other areas, the properties of Nigerians are being willfully destroyed ostensibly to cow them to vote for candidates that are not their choice. Should such conducts still be trailing Nigeria in the 21″ Century? The answer is absolutely NO!”
Comtinuing, the former IG reminded those.behind this behaviour that it was unconstitutional and unlawful to coerce anyone to vote against their will, referring them to Chapter Four and Section 77 of the Constitution, as well as Article 21 of the Human Rights Charter.