INEC doesn’t believe in heavy presence of security agents at polling centres

The new Resident Electoral Commissioner in Osun State, Mr. Olusegun Agbaje, tells journalists that the Independent National Electoral Commission is determined to conduct a credible election in the state on August 9. FEMI MAKINDE was there

The APC recently accused INEC officials of refusing to issue out permanent voter cards to their members after having requested to know the party which they belonged to. Why is this so?

I have answered this question before now but I want to tell you categorically again that this claim by the All Progressives Congress is not true. You can go to the local government areas pretending as if you want to collect your PVC and verify if this outrageous and unfounded claim is true.

None of our officials would ask anybody or demand for their political parties before issuance of PVCs. They know that if they are caught, they will lose their jobs instantly. So, they can’t do it. When we registered them in 2011, we did not ask for their parties’ identities. Since March this year, when we started again, we have never asked which party or tribe anybody comes from before we issued their PVCs to them. I was surprised when I heard this allegation. Some of you contacted me and I stated the position of INEC on this matter.

On Monday, as I was entering the office of the Vice Chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, the chairman of the APC in Osun State, Elder Adebiyi Adelowo, called me to apologise that his director of publicity failed to clear that information from him before he went to the press with it. I replied him that it was not fair to have released such misleading information to the press and now calling to apologise privately. To my utmost surprise, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, was also in the media the following day raising the same allegation. He is somebody that I hold in high esteem, so I expected him to have asked his people to identify which local government this matter was said to have occurred.

We have 30 local governments in the state. Who was the person that was asked such a question as to his or her political party before collecting the PVCs? They should be able to tell us which of the local government areas this incident happened, the INEC official who asked them to disclose their party identities, and their witnesses. Stating these will enable us to know who did that and we would be able to appropriately deal with the person. If they can not give evidence of this, then what are they talking about? I want to believe it is a press hype just to create unnecessary attention.

How many PVCs have been collected by eligible voters so far?

As at last week when we did the final calculation, 808,729 PVCs had been collected. When I was talking to the media in Abuja before then, the figure was 792,000.

Do you think it is necessary to have heavy presence of armed security personnel each time we conduct elections in the country?

INEC as an institution does not believe in the heavy presence of security personnel but we know that we need peace to conduct any election. When the Police, DSS, soldiers, and NSCDC, among others, are going for operations, what I think they would do is operational security assessment. The assessment they do would indicate what they need to do to meet the exigencies that may come up. In their own preparatory assessment, if they have seen the security risk or threat as very high, they have to make adequate preparations to adequately meet with the exigencies of the time.

Like I have said, the utterances of our political leaders should be toned down during their campaigns. If that is done, the people would not be unnecessarily anxious and afraid. Statements by our political leaders during campaigns are capable of causing tension and fear among the people. That is what makes the security agencies assess the security situation and then provide solutions. But, this is not INEC’s responsibility. It is the duty of the security agencies.

The PDP had alleged that INEC was recruiting members of the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme as ad hoc staff. Is this true?

We have just talked about security and you see now that we are bringing in the NYSC members, who are our children. Even if our children are not serving in Osun State, they may be serving in other states in Nigeria. Therefore, it is the responsibility of everybody in Osun State to ensure that these children are safe. Youth corps members have taken this duty up as a national challenge and if they are doing this job in the interest of the nation, then our responsibility is to be committed to their safety and security.

On the OYES members, as far as INEC is concerned, there is nothing like OYES in our agenda. The people we are using as our ad hoc staff comprise mainly NYSC members because they form the bulk of the people, who will work at polling booths during the election, then the rest are from federal tertiary institutions like Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife and the Federal Polytechnic, Ede. If they are not enough for the task, the remaining ad hoc staff would be recruited from federal establishments in the state.

What are the challenges or potential problem you have envisaged ahead of the August 9 election?

The only challenge we have is not human induced challenge, like the rain. We have been praying very hard that between Friday 8th and Sunday 10th of August that God should be very kind to us to have good weather. On the part of INEC, we don’t have any challenge that is not surmountable. Money has been provided and arrangements have been made and from next week, we are going to go full blast in the area of voters’ education and we also urge the media to assist us in this regard. People should be peaceful from now on till the election and after the election. During the campaigns, our contestants should tell the electorate what they intend to do if elected and not things that would agitate their minds or make them develop fear of coming out to vote during the poll.

Edo State election was adjudged credible, but Anambra was inconclusive, Ekiti has now been adjudged good, won’t Osun poll be another inconclusive election?

God forbid bad thing. The commission put in a lot to ensure the success of Ekiti poll, which was even commended by local and international observers. Here we want to have a better election. Our projection is that by February 2015, we should have what you can call the best election. So we expect healthy collaboration with all relevant stakeholders, including the security agencies, our ad hoc staff, the electorate and the media to make sure that all of us are on the same page so that we have a peaceful and credible election, which would be acceptable to all the contestants.

Are you not under pressure from politicians to assist them to manipulate the process?

I have neither seen any politician nor received any call from any of them asking me to do anything improper. They know me and they know what I can do or cannot do. They know that INEC is not going to be the one to declare the result.

There is no pressure on me from any quarters and I am assuring all the contestants that we don’t have any favourite among them. We pray that God will help the people to elect the best among them.

What is INEC doing to dissuade contestants and their followers from engaging in violence?

We have organised enlightenment programmes for some stakeholders including religious leaders. We told our religious leaders that they have the responsibility to admonish their congregations especially by chastising the dubious persons among them that warrant such in order to clean the society of bad eggs. It is the responsibility of religious leaders to call their followers to order and instil in them good norms and morals. They should preach it to their congregations that election vices are not only crimes but also sin and they constitute evil forces that hinder the electoral process in the country. They should also pray for peaceful coexistence among the citizenry; these would no doubt reduce the high level of violence, malpractices and other election vices.

What is your message to the contestants and the people of the state?

They should play the game by the rule. They should not have a presumed mindset so that at the end of the day whoever wins can embrace the losers. This is a race where 20 persons are contesting and it is just one person who will win.

I want to assure our people and all the contestants that INEC is determined to have a very credible election which they will be proud of. All we are requesting for is their cooperation and support.