By: Olalekan Olabulo
Popular human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has condemned the involvement of military men in monitoring last Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections in the country.
Falana stated this during a stakeholders meeting on security, which was convened by the Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Idowu Owohunwa.
The legal luminary stated that using the military is against a court judgement that was delivered many years back.”
On the conduct of the election, Falana said “The conduct wasn’t very impressive. Having regard to the assurance by the INEC leadership, what we saw on the field was a different matter entirely.
“We, therefore, challenge the leadership to study what happened on the 25th of February with a view to having a better outing on the 11th of March.”
He continued that “We cannot afford to invest so much fund, hope and expectations in the election only to have it messed up. I expect the parties that are concerned to collate the evidence at their disposal to challenge the laws. ”
“If the next government will not address the problems confronting us, Nigerians must not allow them have peace of mind. The government generally may breach the law, it is the duty of citizens to be up and doing and that is why all of us must be activists.
“This coming at the right time. It provides us an opportunity to the events of last Saturday and to prepare for the next election for March 11. I am delighted on your prompt response.”
Falana said “I am opposed to the involvement of soldiers monitoring our elections. And it is because of several courts pronouncements.”
He noted that “To whom much is given, much is expected for the police. Many people were not happy in the monitoring of our elections by the police”
He also stated that “I want to suggest that by next Saturday, the Police should be prepared to manage the election on March 11.”
Human rights activist, Monday Ubani, said the last election fell short of people’s expectations, but however said the development should not make citizens to go to war or cause unrest.
Ubani said: “Lagos is a centre of excellence and our preferences during politics should not cause war among us. Let INEC live up to expectations and let the Police ensure the safety of all who are going to leave their homes to vote.”
C P Owohunwa, while making his remark said: “This engagement was convened in furtherance to my leadership approach of engaging a whole of society strategy towards firstly, dissecting threats to our common values as may be identified from time to time, and secondly, to strengthen partnership in evolving strategies and perfecting sets of actions that will be directed at jointly mitigating any threats to public safety and security.”
He added that “In all, the intention of the meeting is to bridge communication gap, arrive at a consensus in our understanding of current security issues, and present a common front to proactively douse undue tensions that could snowball into a major threat to public peace if not promptly mitigated through a multi-stakeholder interactive forum with highly respected personalities like all of you here assembled who are known for your unwaivering patriotism, rationality in reasoning, and the courage and foresight to place the overriding security interest of Lagos State above other mundane, momentary and emotional considerations.
“We should all embrace the path of rule of law while appreciating that violence and threats do not represent acceptable.”
Dr Joe-Okei Odumakin, a rights activist also noted that there must be efforts on the part of INEC to ensure that logistics challenges that happened during the last election do not reoccurs.
She also urged that lawbreakers during such exercises should be punished. “If those who break the law are not brought to book, it will encourage the perpetrators to engage in thuggery some other time. We want to see those who break the law being brought to book. ”
“This meeting has shown that Nigerians can work together and it has shown the spirit of patriotism. We must never give up and ensure that Lagos remains the Center of excellence and by March 11, Lagos should emerge first among the states that are peaceful during the election.
Popular singer, Folarin Falana otherwise known as Falz and comedian Debo Adedayo popularly known as Mr Macaroni urged the Commissioner of Police to assure Lagosians that lives and ballot boxes will be safe during the next election.
“We have come here to ask questions because we don’t want war, we want assurance, and we want to know that the Lagos Police is not under any influences of any politician,” they said.
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