Sunday, February 08, 2015

Falana: Armed Forces Have No Role to Play in Conduct of Elections
08 Feb 2015
By Tobi Soniyi
Nigeria ThisDay

Lagos lawyer, Mr Femi Falana, SAN, has said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should have called the bluff of security chiefs and proceeded with the February 14 presidential election.

In a statement, Falana also said that ‎by saying that they would not provide security in aid of civil authorities pursuant to section 217 of the Constitution, the security chiefs have committed the offence of mutiny contrary to section 52 of the Armed Forces Act.

‎He further stated that by causing the election to be postponed, the NSA and the security chiefs had staged a coup against the constitution.

"They are liable to be prosecuted for the grave offence of treason at the appropriate time," he added.

He also said that INEC misconstrued section ‎25 of the Electoral Act when it relied on it to postpone the election.

He said: "The reliance on section 25 of the Electoral Act by Professor Attahiru Jega, the INEC chairman is totally misleading."

According to him, the provision does not support the postponement of a general election in the entire country but “in the area or areas” where there is violence or actual threat of a breakdown of law and order.

He said: "Since the reason for the postponement of any election must be “cogent and verifiable” it is crystal clear from the press conference addressed by  Jega last night that  INEC did not verify the bogus claim of the NSA and the security chiefs as required by the law."

He also said that  contrary to the mistaken belief of the INEC leadership, the armed forces had no role to play in the electoral process.

He cited a judgment delivered last week by a Federal High Court sitting in Sokoto where the court declared illegal and unconstitutional the involvement of soldiers in election duties.

The judgment, he said, was binding on all authorities and persons in Nigeria.

He described as a blackmail, the letter written to INEC by the National Security Adviser to the President, to the effect that the armed forces could not provide security for the election because of the operations in the north-east region.

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