The former vice president said deployment of soldiers during elections could affect the credibility of the military.
A former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has urged the Federal Government to reconsider the policy of deploying soldiers to supervise elections in the country. He said this is necessary to protect the soldiers’ neutrality and prevent them from being exposed to undue politicization.
He said with the unprecedented security challenges brought on by terrorism, the nation’s military should be allowed to concentrate on its immediate tasks and challenges so as not to lose focus.
Mr. Abubakar stated this in a statement in Abuja on Monday.
Military personnel have in the past been deployed during elections in the country to help beef up security.
Apparently speaking in respect of the forthcoming gubernatorial elections in Ekiti and Osun states, the former vice president explained that the frequent deployment of the military to supervise the conduct of elections in the country might affect its credibility.
“The attention of the military should not be diverted to politics when terrorists are posing the greatest threat to our national security,” Mr. Abubakar, a former presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress, AC, said.
He said the militarization of Bayelsa State, President Goodluck Jonathan’s home state, ahead of the 2012 governorship election in the state had left a blemish that would be difficult to erase in the annals of the country’s young democracy.
He said in the absence of extraordinary emergency situation, there was no justification for dragging soldiers into politics.
Mr. Abubakar noted that gun-wielding soldiers at polling stations obscure the new democratic order in the country and that any interaction between soldiers and politicians at political activities such as voting would not be good for any democracy.
The former vice president, however, said an adequately equipped and well motivated police could maintain law and order at polling stations during elections.
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