INEC Meets Heads Of Security Agencies Ahead Elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC], on Wednesday, held a meeting with Inter-Agency Consultative Committee On Election Security (ICCES) ahead of the 2019 elections.

Present at the meeting were chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and members of ICCES.

Speaking at the meeting, Prof. Yakubu called for a different approach to the deployment of security forces during elections which is coming up in about 37 days.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and Members of the Commission in a regular Quarterly Meeting with Inter-Agency Consultative Committee On Election Security (ICCES) ahead of the 2019 elections

According to him, the purpose of the meeting was “primarily to update members of ICCES on preparations for the 2019 General Elections.

“It is also an opportunity to hear from the security agencies on your preparations so far.

“However, learning from the experience of some of the 195 off-season elections conducted since 2015, it is pertinent to draw our attention to the need for a different approach to the deployment of security forces during elections.

“The Nigeria Police Force remains the lead agency for election security. Other security agencies will play a supportive role to the Nigeria Police.

“However, we need a new security architecture for 2019 consistent with the provision of Section 29 (3) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).”

He added, “Accordingly, this meeting shall discuss modalities for actualising the provision of the law.

“In particular, we are committed to ensuring that elections are organised in such a manner that the security agencies are not perceived to be running parallel arrangements with INEC.

“Rather, it should strictly be INEC’s plan for the election that should be implemented.”

The ICCES consultative meeting was attended by a representative of the National Security Adviser and heads of various security agencies in Nigeria.

During the meeting, it was also disclosed that the final register now stands at 84,004,084 voters.

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