A former spokesman for the Defence Headquarters, Maj-Gen John Enenche (rtd) has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to strengthen security at collation centres nationwide as collation starts today.
According to him, it is not a good thing to take things for granted considering the outbreak of political thuggery and disruption of polls recorded during the presidential and National Assembly polls on Saturday in Lagos, Rivers, and Kogi States among others.
Enenche emphasised that it is important to do so to avoid more incidences of ballot boxes and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) snatching
The retired general who is a supporter of the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi submitted on Channels Television’s special election programme, The 2023 Verdict, that it is good to be on the alert and discrete about the security situation.
He stressed that it is important for security to be strengthened at collation centres so that “the results that will be announced, to a large extent will be believed by Nigerians.”
Enenche added that, “It is not good to take chances. It is good to strengthen the state of readiness, the state of alert. If the military was on blue, changed them to yellow or red, the same thing with the police
“What we are doing is not militarized. We are still growing.
“Look at the system of voting now. Before now, all manners of uncivilised things happen but now we are growing gradually and I believe that we will get to a point where only policemen and civil defence officers can provide security for the election, maybe in the next 10 years.
“But we cannot say it is militarised now, where people snatch ballot boxes. I assume if you take chances, even at the International Conference Centre, these bad boys can organise themselves and burst in against what is on the ground.
“Anybody who is fair to himself will not say that we are militarizing the electioneering process based on our level of development in all ramifications.”
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Maj Gen Enenche Calls the Attention to Security Situation at Collation Centres