Dr Amselm Onuorah, the spokes person for the Kwechiri N’Oganiru opined that the presence of security operatives deployed for the Anambra stand-alone guber election brought insecurities to prospective voters.
Dr Onuorah made this know as a guest on CityTalks with Reuben Abati on City 105.1 on Saturday.
The Anambra governorship election that was conducted on the 6th November 2021 and supplementary election in Ihiala Local Government Area, in Anambra State on the 9th November, 2021 generated a lot of apprehensions from many people.
Prior to the scheduled date for the Anambra gubernatorial election, there was a report on new media that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has declared a sit-at-home order in the South East between 5-10 November, 2021 which of cause falls within the date for the election.
However, the President of Nigeria and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, Muhammadu Buhari, had given clear directives to that effect, stating it clearly that whoever tries to disrupt the election will meet with the full weight of the Nigerian State.
According to the Office of the National Security Adviser, any non-state actor that tries to challenge the state's will be dealt with full force. According to the Office of the National Security Adviser.
The election was conducted in 21 Local Government Areas, over 5,000 polling units and 18 candidates of various political parties involved and also over 34, 500 personnel, 45 Commissioners of Police,48 ACPs, 2 DIGs, 5 AIGs, 3 Helicopters. The Civil Defence Corps sent in over 20, 000 men. The Department of State Security deployed its men and women.
The spokesperson of the IPOB in a bulletin said that the sit-at-home order is cancelled and the group encouraged people to come out in their numbers to take part in the election.
In retrospect, Dr Onourah blamed the voters turn out on the humongous number of security personnel.
According to him, deploying such a number of personnel could have a negative impact in an election. “Some persons that didn’t come out may have thought that something may happen. However, their presence helped the atmosphere for those that came out,” he said.
Dr Onourah disagreed When fielded with the question by Dr Reuben Abati, if the presence of those personnel was there to justify the means to an end.
He said, “It is because of the failure of a system that accumulated to the event seen in Anambra.
“The federal government wanted the elections to hold to make a statement.
“The state didn’t want a state of emergency to be declared, so they have to deploy all that security apparatus to conduct an election in Anambra
“If the challenges in Anambra was handled before the election, it won’t be necessary to deploy all those security personnel.
“But at the end we had a peaceful election.”
A comment from Adeboyga Adedeji via whatsapp reads, “in as much as I want to congratulate Pro Charles Solution Soludo, for having the largest number of votes, I think we as a nation has not experienced what true democracy and democratic process entails. This idea of militarization of election, is another way of denying the right of the people in an election. Indirectly paving way for malpractices.”