Analysts Want Civil Defence To Monitor Elections After Peaceful Rivers LG Polls

Some concerned Nigerians have called for a regulation mandating operatives of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps to be in charge of election monitoring in Nigeria.

Those interviewed based their argument on the recent local government elections in Rivers State where operatives of the civil defence conducted the elections.

They accused the Nigeria Police and the military of being partisan and aiding malpractices during elections.

A former National Auditor of the Peoples Democratic Party, Barr Ray Nnaji, said, “Let the operatives of the NSCDC handle subsequent elections across the country.

“Police and the military are no longer necessary in our elections. You can see, there was no violence in the Rivers elections.

“We didn’t hear that anybody was killed during the elections. There was no case of ballot box snatching.”

Charles Obioma, a publisher, shares the same view. He alleged that police had been the tool for election rigging in Nigeria.

In his words, “It would be nice to phase the police out of the system. You never can tell if that would be the change we anticipate.

“It is only in Nigeria that reports and videos of police carrying ballot boxes are read, and nothing would happen.

“Some targeted opponents would be beaten up in the presence of the police, and nothing would happen. Let’s test the integrity of Civil Defence and know if they would toe the same line.

“But I commend the conduct of the LG polls in Rivers State. There was no tension. It means the tension at elections is created.”

THE WHISTLER reports that the Action Peoples Party won 22 chairmanship seats while the Action Alliance won one. Gov Fubara, who is of the PDP, had allegedly given his tacit support for APP.

The court had banned the Nigeria Police from providing security during the polls, leading to the engagement of the Civil Defence to monitor the elections across the state.