Yemisi Izuora/Ijeoma Agudosi
As electoral campaigns continue to heat up preparatory to the February 14 and 28, 2015 general elections in Nigeria, NOPRIN FOUNDATION has called on the Nigeria police and all security agencies to take more seriously and discharge, with greater professionalism, their duty to provide security to all Nigerians.
The Nigeria police in particular, should provide effective and equal security to all Nigerians without bias or consideration as to the political, religious or sectional affiliation of any individual or group, it said.
NOPRIN also calls on politicians to play by the rules, act within the law and with tolerance and mutual respect.
‘Nigeria government must ensure that the police and other security agencies are adequately trained, equipped, motivated and equitably deployed to provide security, maintain public order, prevent violence and apprehend and conclusively prosecute any person or group involved in or promoting violence and electoral malpractices.
Security agencies must carry out pre-election security threat assessment to identify and make special security preparations for and deployments to areas that are considered more volatile, or that have special or peculiar security needs.
The police and other security agencies must strive to act professionally at all times, prioritise respect for human rights, support democracy and stay out of politics’ Okechukwu Nwanguma said in a statement made available to Oriental News Nigeria.
He urged INEC to remain resolute in its determination to stick to the electoral rules and time table, collaborate with all stakeholders, apply lessons learnt from previous exercises so as to improve on their performance and ensure free, fair, credible and violence-free elections.