Rights commission, others support military’s deployment for elections

AS the debate continues whether or not the military should be deployed for election duties during the forthcoming general elections, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and about 60 civil society organisations (CSOs) ‎have lent their voices that the military should be engaged in order to secure lives and property during the exercise.

  However, the NHRC and the CSOs, under the aegis of Situation Room, said they have resolved to establish a joint technical working group to draw up clear rules of engagement for the military during the elections in order to enforce “neutrality and impartiality.” 

  Accordingly, the joint technical working group would also ‎monitor compliance of the military with the rules of engagement during the electioneering exercise.

  In a communiqué signed by Chairman of NHRC, Dr. Chidi Anslem Odinkalu and the convener of Situation Room, Clement Nwankwo, and made available to The Guardian Sunday, the CSO Situation Room and the NHRC expressed shared concern about the tone and what appears to be the willingness of the leading political parties to turn the role of the security agencies in the 2015 general elections into a partisan issue and agreed to work together to protect the professionalism and neutrality of all security units or institutions to be deployed for the elections.”

   The communiqué further reads, among others: “The Situation Room and the NHRC called for politicians from across the political divide to close ranks in protecting and defending the credibility of the electoral system.”