A non-governmental organisation, Centre for Law Enforcement Education in Nigeria itored last Saturday’s Anambra governorship poll, has published the report of its findings. It declared that security agencies gave an impressive outing in the discharge of their duties even though there were minimal security breaches.

The observer group said that though there were some hitches on the part of the umpire, that the election was the freest and fairest ever to be conducted.

The election was won by the incumbent Governor, Chief Willie Obiano of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). Reading the report before journalists in Awka, Project Leader and Assistant Programme Manager of the organisation, Chigozirim Okoro, observed that the election outcome was largely in line with the conclusion of the Foundation’s Security Threat Assessment for the 2017.

The report reads in part: “Overall, the conduct of security agents during the elections is commendable, especially in the discharge of their duties at the patrol bits, polling units, and collation centres. Overall, the findings of the field observation indicated that 56% rated the performance of security agents in the Anambra election ‘very good’ while 26% rated it ‘good’.

“However, 4% rated their performance ‘fair’ and another 4% rated it ‘poor’. Notwithstanding, there were multiple reports of vote trading especially at the polling units, in the presence of security agents. There were also concerns about logistics and welfare of security agents, which impacted on their ability to perform maximally in furtherance of the objective of election security.

“The level of inter-agency collaboration observed in the election should be sustained and improved upon in future elections. The National Orientation Agency and civil society organisations should intensify the sensitisation of the citizens on the need to support security agents in the arrest and prosecution of electoral offenders.

“Security agencies should also make adequate logistics arrangements for the feeding and accommodation of the personnel on election duty, including ensuring prompt payment of their allowances, while INEC should commit more technical resources to improving the functionality and reliability of the electoral inputs.”

The Foundation further called on security agencies to continue to fine-tune right “right-sized” deployment of its ght-sized” deployment of its agents in order to improve election security against the 2019.

CLEEN also urged media and civil society organisations to deepen public enlightenment on the dangers of vote trading on the credibility of elections and prospect of good governance, advising that security agents and presiding officers should show more commitment in curbing vote trading and voter inducement at the polling units.

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