Polls: Group accuses police, INEC of unprofessional conduct

Urges disbandment of Yakubu-led commission

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA), yesterday, condemned the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and other security agencies for allowing armed hoodlums, suspected to be working for governors in Rivers and Lagos states, to run roughshod at last Saturday’s polls.

It called for the dismissal of the Lagos and Rivers police commissioners for alleged conspiracy with their state governments to allow the reign of armed political thugs in the aforementioned states.

HURIWA, in a statement by the National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, described INEC under Mahmood Yakubu as irredeemably compromised by politicians controlling the governments of Rivers, Lagos, and several other states whereby these governors recruited and deployed thugs to operate freely.

It, therefore, advocated the immediate disbandment of the management of the present INEC and appointment of fresh commissioners by foreign management consultants.

The rights group called for the prosecution of INEC management staff, including the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in Lagos, Imo, Rivers, Ebonyi and Anambra states for their irredeemable compromises during the February 25 and March 18 elections.

It described Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), Adejobi Olumuyiwa, as Igbo-phobic and a joke of a law enforcement officer for terming the threat alleged threat to unleash violence on the Igbo as a joke.

Chairman of Lagos Parks and Garages, Musiliu Akinsanya, also known as MC Oluomo, had in a trending video made a direct threat against Igbo voters in Lagos.

MC Oluomo, a Lagos government appointee, had allegedly warned the Igbo, who would not vote the All Progressives Congress (APC), to sit at home or regret voting at all.

But amid the groundswell of calls on the police to arrest MC Oluomo for incitement of violence in the gubernatorial election, which was marred by intimidation, violence and killings targeting Igbo voters, the FPRO rather dismissed the threat and said nobody had the right to stop the people of Lagos from voting for the candidate of their choice.

HURIWA recalled too that the FPRO had also said: “I saw a video of MC Oluomo with one Mama Chidinma – an Igbo woman debunking that threat, that it’s not true but just a joke he was making with a particular woman. So, let us take it as a joke, like he said. But, nobody has the right and audacity to tell Nigerians not to come out and vote; it’s not allowed and not proper. MC Oluomo has come out to debunk it, so let’s leave it that it’s not true. The Commissioner of Police in Lagos had debunked it, and MC Oluomo himself has done the same.”

Onwubiko noted that MC Oluomo’s action contravenes the Electoral Act 2022, especially Section 125, which states: “Any person, who at an election acts or incites others to act in a disorderly manner, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a maximum fine of N500,000 or imprisonment for a term of 12 months or both.

“Also, MC Oluomo’s action violates Section 128 (a) which states: A person who (a) directly or indirectly, by his or herself or by another person on his or her behalf, makes use of or threatens to make use of any force, violence or restrain, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of N1 million or imprisonment for a term of three years.”