Enough of tough talk before elections

Anyone who had  opportunity to follow media reports on the preparations for rerun elections in Rivers State scheduled for yesterday would agree that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the police were set for the event. On its part, the electoral body said every measure and precaution had been taken to ensure free and fair elections adding that in addition to its usual logistics, 3 national commissioners and 6 resident electoral commissioners were deployed for election duty on the D-Day. On his part, the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase last Monday directed the immediate relocation of the Assistant Inspector General Adisa Baba Bolanta AIG in charge of Zone 6 Calabar, to Port Harcourt for pre-elections preparations. In addition, 3 Commissioners of Police were specifically deployed to supervise security arrangements within the three Senatorial Districts – Rivers East, Rivers West and Rivers South East, respectively.  More strategic was the deployment of 6000 conventional Policemen and 14 Units of Police Mobile Force personnel (MOPOL), to compliment the personnel of Rivers State Command during the election. Addressing a stakeholders’ meeting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State born Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of Operations, DIG Sontoye Wakama left no one in doubt that the police meant business. In the words of Wakama, “if volatility should arise, we are going to stretch, and I repeat, we are going to stretch the law to the fullest elasticity. Let me explain it, if it would require us to use a mortar pestle to kill a mosquito – I am not saying we are killing anybody – we are going to bring any erring person to book. We are not here to plead; we are not here to beg; we are not here to beseech or to request. We are here to tell you that, should there be any problem, wherever it rises from, we will deal with that problem with the full weight of the law.” With such a well crafted statement, was the police merely barking? Have we not heard all of this before? Of course election violence in Nigeria has never been handled with the severity it deserves. In 2003, the then Police boss, Tafa Balogun revealed that 850 violent political thugs arrested by the Police were set free through government intervention. During the post election violence which followed the 2011 elections; the Police in Kaduna officially confirmed the arrest of more than 400 suspected perpetrators of election violence. 189 others were arrested in Zaria. What happened to the cases? In the governorship re-run election in Delta State in January 2011, ballot snatching occurred prominently with 25,000 security operatives on ground. During the 2012 Edo governorship elections, the State Government issued a statement a few days to the election to condemn those who it claimed to be buying voters’ cards on behalf of the Governor. This made the police to swing into action and arrested 6 members of the main opposition party for allegedly ‘buying’ voters’ cards but no one was arrested for selling to them and no got to know what happened to those arrested! In the Anambra governorship election, security agencies were battle ready and they read the riot act to would be miscreants. In the end, they arrested 183 election observers from Osun State who were lodged at Desney Hotel, Owerri for illegal assembly. Then, they restricted certain politicians to their hotel rooms during voting and as one bizarre allegation stated, they held-up some INEC staff at Onitsha Bridge for hours on Election Day. After voting, they used tear gas to disperse about 300 women who were protesting what they felt was a poorly organized election. Some of the women fainted but alas, 28,000 security operatives led by a Deputy Inspector-General of Police deployed to secure the election could not stop the snatching of ballot boxes. Similarly in the case of the Oguta constituency election of June 2013, security operatives armed to the teeth were everywhere. They reportedly rounded off a batch of thugs numbering about 20 at Agwa community yet; there was still ample snatching of ballot boxes. This necessitated the declaration of the election by INEC as inconclusive. How did the case of the thugs end? As an officer who rose from the intelligence branch of the police to the top, Arase cannot be unmindful of the importance of dealing with the subject from point of view of knowledge. This probably explains why he began with a thorough surveillance of flash points. It is indeed instructive that he deployed detachments of the anti-robbery squad, anti-bomb squad, anti-terrorist team and a special marine force with helicopter surveillance to complement the security arrangements. With the outright ban placed on the use of tricycles, motorcycles and motorized speed boats with capacities of 200 horsepower and above, the nation should be interested in what the police found and how it handled its findings. How for instance did the police manage the big Ogas? Here are some relevant questions. Governor Nyesom Wike declared public holidays on the two days, Thursday and Friday preceding the election “to enable workers fully participate in the polls.” What type of preparations did the people need 2 days to make? Was it for them to have enough time to search for their voters’ cards? Former Governor Rotimi Amaechi was alleged to have boasted that he would use the army to overwhelm his opponents- the Peoples Democratic Party. Luckily, the latter got the courts to restrain the federal government from involving the military in the elections. Was the court order obeyed? However, we recall that the military was used in the governorship election which Wike won in 2015. Why is the governor’s party now against the use of the military? Was there something the military did in favour of the then ruling party which it is seeking to prevent from happening now that the positions have changed? People who rig elections should be arrested and prosecuted, but Wike says such riggers should prepare their ‘Will’ before coming to rig election in Rivers State which means they will be killed. If so, who is authorised to do the killing?