From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno, has charged the personnel of various security agencies participating in the Osun State governorship election, scheduled to hold on July 16, to be on red alert to deal with disgruntled politicians that might attempt to sabotage the process through vote-buying inducement.
He spoke at a special meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) held yesterday in Abuja to appraise the build up to the Osun poll.
He also specifically challenged the commission to organise enlightenment campaigns to encourage voters’ participation in future elections beginning with the Osun State election.
Represented by Sanusi Galadima, Monguno said: “The NSA also urges ICCES members to build on the successes recorded in the Ekiti State election as some disgruntled politicians may attempt to sabotage the process for their selfish gains, through vote buying and other forms of voter inducement as well as political thuggery.”
On how to combat voter apathy, the NSA noted that electoral umpire was undergoing tremendous transformation through re-calibration of the electoral process in the areas of voter’s registration/voter education, screening of voters at the polling units, Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), as well as electronic transmission of results to INEC server from the polling booth.
“Records from the conduct of the last Ekiti State governorship election indicated an impressive performance by INEC as well the ICCES member agencies as there were no any major incident of security concern recorded during and after the election,” Monguno said, stating that more needs to be done in terms of enlightenment campaign by INEC to encourage voters to come out and cast their votes on the day of the election.