Nigeria: Police still operating 1949 structure-Williams

A former chairman of the Nigerian chapter of the Transparency International, Maj. Gen. Ishola Williams (retd), has said the Nigeria police are still operating based on their 1949 structure, saying there is no way the police can then provide security for elections in the country at the moment.

Williams therefore called for the scrapping of the Ministry of Police Affairs and the placement of the police 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.

He said, “If well structured, Nigeria would have no problems with elections. States should organise their own polls; what is the business of the Independent National Electoral Commission organising governorship elections? The Nigeria police are still based on 1949 structure and that is why they 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 INEC erred by involving the NSA and soldiers in the 2015 polls, noting that in Ghana for instance, there was a security coordinating committee that handled 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 were doing with such amount of money,” Williams stated.

But Williams’ submission was countered by an official from INEC, Prof. Okey Ibeanu, who argued that the electoral body 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 security adviser’s role was to coordinate the suggestions from the various security agencies in the country, noting that the deployment of soldiers in the states was to deter political thugs from disrupting the polls.

Ibeanu said, “NSA’s role was advisory, it coordinated advice from the security agencies. INEC was faced with the dilemma of tearing up the advice from all the security agencies that they weren’t in a position to provide security for the polls, there was no alternative.”

The Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, said there was 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.

Source: Punchng