Election security is a defining factor of Nigeria\u2019s electoral process, as elections have continued to be characterised by brazen acts of violence. Civil Society has criticised the involvement of the military in elections and repeatedly called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take the lead in the deployment of security agents for election duty, according to the provision of section 29(3) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), which empowers INEC to request for deployment of security personnel in a manner it so determines, in conjunction with security agencies. INEC\u2019s release of the Code of Conduct and Rules of Engagement for Security Officials on Electoral Duty seems to be a step in the right direction. On Wednesday, June 24, the Commission announced the release of the document, following its consideration of a report from the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), which approved the document. This would be the fourth policy document to guide the conduct of elections released by the Commission since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. INEC is empowered to make rules to guide the conduct of elections pursuant to section 160 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and section 153 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Code of Conduct and Rules of Engagement for\nSecurity Officials on Electoral Duty is to serve as a uniform standard of\nconduct to guide the behaviour of all security agents from various agencies\ninvolved in election duty. Prior to the release of this harmonised policy for\nall member agencies of the ICCES, security agencies involved in election duty\nimplemented their respective codes of conduct for their personnel. The document\nis divided into two parts: (i) Code of Conduct (ii) Rules of Engagement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scope of the electoral duties includes activities\nrelated to elections, as established by INEC, such as voting, collation of\nresults, political campaigns and rallies. The mandate of ICCES is to secure the\nelectoral process by ensuring safety of persons and properties, enforcing the\nprovisions of the Nigerian Constitution, electoral and other relevant laws, as\nwell as crowd control at political conventions and rallies. Security agents are\nexpected to carry out these responsibilities in accordance with extant laws and\nstandard practices, particularly fundamental human rights, rules of their\nrespective agencies, the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), INEC regulations,\nmanuals and guidelines, charters and protocols of the United Nations and the\nEconomic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Security agents on election\nduty are expected to carry this Code of Conduct with them at all times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Standard Operational Guidelines contained in the\ndocument require that all deployment of security personnel in electoral\nactivities must be guided by the provision of section 29(3) of the Electoral\nAct 2010. It further stipulates that security officials on election duty ensure\nefficiency, prevent abuse of human rights and misuse of power, mitigate\ncriminal and administrative liabilities in their conduct. Interestingly, the\ngeneral conduct required of security agents include but is not limited to\nreceiving instructions from designated INEC officials and sharing information\nwith authorised ICCES members, as well as being duty bound to assist those\nin need, particularly vulnerable persons. Security agents are also\nprohibited from using mobile phones while on duty or soliciting for food or\nother items. They are expected to remain at their duty posts until the\ncompletion of their duty or when they are properly relieved. Ad-hoc shifts are\nprohibited to prevent impersonation. Furthermore, the Code of Conduct specifically\nstipulates that all security personnel must observe and assist in enforcing the\nprovisions of INEC\u2019s Policy on the Conduct of Elections in the Context of\nCOVID-19, in a professional, humane, polite and non-partisan manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Code provides that a security officer must be\ndesignated for every escort duty, with the list of all persons, vehicles and\nname of the officer serving as escort commander made available to designated\nINEC officials. Contingency plans are also to be prepared in readiness of an\nunexpected incident. In the event of an unforeseen security situation, the\nescort team is expected to abort the exercise and inform the security home base\nand INEC immediately. Transportation of ballot boxes after voting and collation\nof results are critical phases of the electoral process where irregularities\nare most likely to occur. It is very important that these processes are\nadequately secured. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Rules of Engagement, which are intended to guide\nthe operations of the security agents, underscore the application of minimum\nand proportional force at all times. They state that reasonable efforts short\nof force shall be made to control situations, with resort to force only when\nthe situation deteriorates and may lead to serious injury or loss of life. Open\nfire, a situation we have seen in elections in recent times, is also reserved\nas a last resort, which can only be used in extreme cases. Force may however be\napplied in order to protect citizens and their property, election officials and\nmaterials, observers and security agents, and never used as a punitive measure.\nThe rules also provide procedures for making arrests and the procedure for\nhandling exhibits. Compilation of reports of all incidents and important\noccurrences is also mandated by the rules. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The document appears very detailed, providing a\nstandard for transparency and accountability, as it stipulates what is required\nof security personnel in the conduct of\nelection duty, procedures to be followed and how to relate with members of the\npublic. This is crucial in view of the fact that the Police is the lead security\nagency for election duty and the rising incidence of Police brutality and\ncomplicity in electoral offences. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Election security is a defining factor of Nigeria\u2019s electoral process, as elections have continued to be characterised by brazen acts of violence. Civil Society has criticised the involvement of the military in elections and repeatedly called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take the lead in the deployment of security agents for election […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-1549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-inec-releases-guidelines-for-security-personnel-on-election-duty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1549"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1562,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1549\/revisions\/1562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}