HURIWA Commends Nigerian Army for Showing professionalism in Election period
A leading pro-democracy and non-governmental organization – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has passed a vote of confidence on the hierarchy of the Nigerian military regarding how professionally ethical they have so far conducted themselves depicting a huge amounts of commitments and patriotic zeal to defend constitutional democracy.
The National Coordinator of HURIWA, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko in a statement commended the Nigerian milittary for professionalism it has exhibited so far towards the general election.
Emmanuel said: “As preparations for election reached frenetic levels, shortly before INEC ‘annulled’ the conduct of the February 16th Presidential and National Assembly’s election six hours even before it started, the military authority had adopted a number of open; transparent and credible mechanisms to show that the institution of the Nigerian military was ready to carry out her duties in protection and defence of democracy. The Nigerian Army we think is resolute in it’s constitutional role as a major custodian of constitutional democracy and political stability.
“First, the military hierarchy openly launched the General Elections situation room in which all the segments of the military would converge to monitor the proceeding of the election and to monitor the conduct of their field soldiers.
“The Nigeria Army on Wednesday last week inaugurated an election observation centre at the Army Headquarters, Abuja, to compliment Operation Safe Conduct also launched to ensure a peaceful 2019 general elections.
“The Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai while launching the situation room said it has been reconfigured for real-time monitoring of events during the 2019 General Elections.
“He said post-election violence which characterized previous elections highlights the challenges posed by incidents of electoral violence in the country.”
He said lessons learnt from previous election violence witnessed have categorized the nature or types of violence into three broad categories namely: pre-election violence, violence during elections and post-election violence.
He said violence at the various phases of elections include thuggery, snatching of ballot boxes and papers or kidnapping or abduction of electoral officers and party agents and wanton destruction of lives and properties.
General Tukur Yusuf Buratai said having observed this cycle of violence reoccur severally in our past electioneering processes, the Nigerian Army (NA) has thus deemed it necessary to adopt a proactive and responsive posture that would allow us to better respond to early signs of insecurity before they could escalate into a major security challenge.
He said, “It is in this light that the NA has launched Operation Safe Conduct and also gone ahead to establish this situation room for real-time monitoring.”
The nation’s top military chief stated also that, “At this point, it cannot be overstated that fake news and false propaganda pose a dangerous threat to both the democratic process and military operations. The use of media, especially social media to deliberately spread fake news should be a thing of concern to all.”
“The rapid spread of fake news has been responsible for misinformation, thereby having an influence on public sentiment and sows confusion among the electorate or even easily ignites violence during the period of the 2019 general elections,” he added.
He said the Army through the Cyber Warfare Command has been engaged in monitoring, identifying and countering various forms of fake news and propaganda being put out by terrorists and subversive elements.
HURIWA must affirm without equivocation based on empirical proofs that the Army was also proactive in arresting fake soldiers who were deployed by some undisgruntled political urchins in Imo state and immediately handed these dubious thugs to the police for prosecution.
This is to say the least, a clear demonstration of the will to protect constitutional democracy and ensure peaceful conduct of the polls.
