LEGAL Directorate of the presidential’s campaign council of All
Progressives Congress (APC) has asked the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) to obey court orders restraining the commission from
using soldiers in the forthcoming general election in the country.
The council also forwarded same letter to the service chiefs and the National Security Adviser (NSA), demanding that they refrained from supervising the elections rescheduled on the ground that the service chiefs could not guarantee security.
The petition dated February 16 and signed by the Director, Legal Directorate, Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume, drew INEC’s attention to the fact that the Federal High Court in Sokoto had restrained the president and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces from engaging or permitting the services of the Nigerian Armed Forces in the security supervision of elections in any manner whatsoever in any part of country.
Ume said: “It would have been unnecessary writing and attaching the judgment to your office since your commission was the second respondent in the suit.
“In any case, these became necessary considering the fact that INEC
neither entered appearance nor filed any process in the suit.”
He reasoned that the shortcoming was not unconnected to the commission’s vivid frustration at the illegal imposition of armed forces personnel into a purely civil election process.
He said it was clear from the judgment of Justice R. M. Aikawa that the use of the word “officers” in Section 29 (1) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) does not entail the use of officers of the Armed Forces by INEC during election.
He said it was imperative that INEC ensured, henceforth, that armed forces personnel were never again deployed for election purposes.
The council also forwarded same letter to the service chiefs and the National Security Adviser (NSA), demanding that they refrained from supervising the elections rescheduled on the ground that the service chiefs could not guarantee security.
The petition dated February 16 and signed by the Director, Legal Directorate, Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume, drew INEC’s attention to the fact that the Federal High Court in Sokoto had restrained the president and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces from engaging or permitting the services of the Nigerian Armed Forces in the security supervision of elections in any manner whatsoever in any part of country.
Ume said: “It would have been unnecessary writing and attaching the judgment to your office since your commission was the second respondent in the suit.
He reasoned that the shortcoming was not unconnected to the commission’s vivid frustration at the illegal imposition of armed forces personnel into a purely civil election process.
He said it was clear from the judgment of Justice R. M. Aikawa that the use of the word “officers” in Section 29 (1) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) does not entail the use of officers of the Armed Forces by INEC during election.
He said it was imperative that INEC ensured, henceforth, that armed forces personnel were never again deployed for election purposes.
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