BY FAVOUR PERCY-IDUBOR, BENIN
THE Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, has announced the ban on Edo State Security Network (ESSN), from participating in the security for the September 21, governorship election in Edo State. IGP Egbetoku announced this yesterday in Benin, during the stakeholders meeting on the Edo State governorship election.
He said the task of securing voters and election materials rest squarely on the Police, who will be supported by other national securities to ensure credible election.
He warned that no private or State-owned security apparatus would be allowed to operate during and after the election. “All local securities in Edo state should refrain from participating in Edo election. Activities of Edo State Security Network which has been suspended and remain suspended”
The IGP further disclosed that 35000 police officer had been deployed for the election while 8,000 comprising other national security agencies will support the police.
Egbetokun assured that the police will ensure strict compliance to the electorial Act and other requisite laws to provide conducive environmental for peaceful conduct of the election. According to him, the police will not tolerate any act of hooliganism and violence during the election while anyone caught with weapons during the election would be treated and dealt with as criminal. It will be recalled that concerns had been raised over activities of the Edo security apparatus, following the killing of Inspector Akor Onu, a security aide to the candidate of APC, Senator Monday Okpebholo.
Onu was shot dead on 18 July, along Airport Road by yet-to-be-identified gunmen.
Also addressing the stakeholders, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, said the purpose of the stakeholders meeting, is to interact with political parties and candidates as well as accredited election observers, the media and other stakeholders on the preparations for the election.
“As most of you are aware, it has been the tradition that a stakeholders’ meeting of this nature is convened on the eve of major off-cycle Governorship elections, jointly addressed by the INEC Chairman and the Inspector-General of Police.
“On the part of INEC, active preparations for the election started last year with the release of the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election as required by law. Overall, 13 statutory activities were listed beginning with the publication of the Notice of Election and ending with the Election Day. This document has been widely publicised and as a reminder, we have included it in the information booklet circulated at this meeting.
“As you can see from the Timetable for the election, the Commission has so far implemented 11 out of the 13 activities on schedule. As at today, we have only two outstanding activities. These are the last day of campaign by political parties which, according to law, ends 24 hours before the date fixed for the elections i.e. at midnight on Thursday 19th September 2024 and Election Day on Saturday 21st September 2024.
He stated that Edo State has a total of 2,629,025 registered voters to participate in the September 21st 2024 governorship election.
The INEC Chairman also noted that the Commission has so far accredited 134 groups (124 domestic and 10 international) deploying 1,836 observers across the State. And, that 114 media organisations, numbering 721 journalists have been accredited to cover the election.
He reassured stakeholders that INEC is ready for the election. “We are deploying the BVAS machines for voter accreditation at polling units and for the upload of results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal. Only yesterday, we conducted mock accreditation in 12 polling units across six Local Government Areas in the three Senatorial Districts of the State. The purpose was to test-run our deployment of technology to safeguard the credibility of the election. I am glad to report that the mock was successful and the result can be viewed on the IReV portal. But let me also quickly add that the machines used for the mock accreditation and the training of officials will not be used on Election Day. We have sufficient machines for the election which have been configured for voter accreditation and the upload of result distinct from those used for mock accreditation and training”.
In his contribution, the Chairman of the Edo State Interparty Adversary Council, Igbinomwanhia Greg, said elections are said to be credible if they are free, fair, credible and peaceful. He charged INEC to match actions with words, while calling on other stakeholders to conduct themselves in a peaceful manner for the interest of the general public.
