By Frank Ulom
18 political parties have passed a vote of no confidence on the security agencies, especially the Nigeria Police Force ahead of the February 25 and March 11, 2023 general elections in Cross River State (CRS).
The 18 political parties under the umbrella of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) made this remark in a world press conference held on Monday, February 6, 2023, at the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ Press Centre in Calabar.
Speaking, the state chairman of IPAC, Comrade Anthony Bissong Attah, said the security agencies have allowed themselves to be bought over by big politicians who feed on the people’s tax-payers money.
The council called on the redeployment of the Commissioner of Police, CP and Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCP Operations from the state before the general election.
The IPAC also give the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC 24 hours to allow political parties to inspect the BVAS in addition to taking full record of the IMEI number of the 3,281 BVAS machines to reignite and renew their confidence in the commission.
The group called on the public to support IPAC to ensure a free and fair election in the state.
Below is the full text from the press conference by IPAC on Monday, February 6, 2023, at the NUJ Press Centre, Calabar
TEXT OF WORLD PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE INTER PARTY ADVISORY COUNCIL, IPAC, CROSS RIVER STATE AT NUJ PRESS CENTRE, CALABAR.
Good morning everyone.
We are glad to be here today to update the good people of Cross River State on the State of our security and the preparation of our security agencies ahead of the long-awaited critical 2023 general election. It is our duty to periodically give updates on preparations ahead of the 2023 general elections largely because of the importance we all attach to the forthcoming election.
Let me start by thanking the NUJ for the good work you have been doing so far by presenting a balanced report on issues affecting our dear State. I must commend the way and manner you dispense information concerning the state and your reception of all shades of opinion.
It is fitting to commence this discussion with a quote from Abraham Lincoln whose thoughts on democracy are universally adjudged to be not only apt and succinct but also timeless. “Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters”. We are already well versed with his now globally accepted definition of democracy in his popular Gettysburg Speech that democracy is “government of the people, by the people and for the people”. From the above quotations, it is very obvious that democracy is only seen to be fully practiced when the people are the main priority of those manning the driver’s seat. If democracy is about the people and we are the representatives of the people, it means without gainsaying that our positions, thoughts, actions and opinions must be respected by all institutions in the country.
The gamut of this press conference lies in the very despicable fact that political parties in CRS are terribly undermined by the establishment. Men of the Nigerian Police are seemingly unaware of the fact that the people are their employers and that they exist to the extent that they are needed by the people. Their relationship with the people is dictated by impunity and a consistent bold attempt to ignore and undermine the fundamental rights of Nigerian citizens.
Political parties in CRS had a sour taste of this reality about four weeks ago when the Commissioner of Police through the DCP Operations invited all political party chairmen, ward chairmen and youth leaders of the 54 political wards of Cross River North to an interactive session with the Commissioner of Police in faraway Ogoja. After painstakingly mobilizing most of our stakeholders to the meeting, we were shocked to find out that the commanding height of the police on reaching Ogoja deserted us and rather held a meeting with a group of politicians in the North and deliberately refused to convene for the scheduled meeting. It is, even more exacerbating that four weeks later, the police have not even addressed the issue let alone offer any explanation for their ignoble outing. With the current state of insecurity in CRS where a serving Commissioner for Women Affairs has been kidnapped for about a week now, we have elected not to work with the current leadership of CRS Police Command because we don’t know what they plan to do in the coming elections. We will like to put it on record that since two weeks ago after calling for the redeployment of the CP and especially the DCP Operations, political party chairmen have been under threat of attack as strange calls and movements of strange individuals have been noticed by some of our chairmen.
While we want the general public to know our current ordeal with the security apparatus in the state, we hasten to say that nothing can deter us from our resolve to insist on a free, fair and peaceful election.
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State of Security in CRS and preparation for 2023 general elections.
In our last press release, you would recall that we passed a vote of no confidence and further asked for the redeployment of the Commissioner of Police, CP Sule Balarabe and the Deputy Commissioner of Operations, DCP Francis Idu. In light of the current security situation in our dear state, it has become even more urgent to reinforce our call for the redeployment of these Police henchmen. It is now evident that the leadership of the Nigerian Police Force lacks the capacity to enforce law and order in our state. The spate of kidnapping, robbery and killings on our highways is totally unacceptable. We have found a dangerous and unabating weakness in the Operations department headed by DCP Francis Idu. As one of the oldest DCPs in the state, we believe he has outlived his usefulness given the obvious weakness in his unit. Our position is hinged on the fact that the Commissioner is new in the state and the Commission has been shaky due largely to the poor handling of security matters by DCP Idu. It is worrisome to note that while the military officials on the Ugep-Uyangha axis of the IkomCalabar highway are busy doing their job professionally, men of the Nigerian Police are busy extorting motorists.
ON INEC AND THE 2023 ELECTION
It is important to state here that all along, IPAC in CRS has enjoyed a smooth working relationship with INEC. It is on record that we didn’t have any disagreement throughout the process of filing candidates. That is why, unlike other states of the federation, we have limited cases of post primaries litigation.
However, this relationship encountered a major test a fourth night ago. This test was packaged in the social media post authored by Citizen Agba Jalingo where he alleged that BVAS meant for CRS were being chauffeured at night into the governor’s lodge. When this information filtered to us, as an organized body, we approached the REC exactly two weeks ago to ascertain the real state of the BVAS. He told us his side of the story after which we demanded to inspect the BVAS to see things for ourselves. The REC gleefully accepted and asked us to return to the secretariat by 2 pm the following day to enable us to inspect the machines in the company of the Police and the DSS. On arriving INEC secretariat the next day, we were barred from seeing the BVAS.
In reaction to this unaccustomed action by the electoral umpire, we unanimously stormed out of the meeting and immediately addressed the press. Some of you here published our story in your papers. Moreover, we demanded that the only way we can trust the commission going forward is to inspect the BVAS in addition to taking a record of the IMEI off all the 3281 machines.
Gentlemen of the press, it is very appalling to inform you that up till this moment, we haven’t been allowed to inspect the BVAS machine. We are here therefore to let the general public note that we maintain our reservation on the true state of the BVAS machine. In fact, we are even tempted to align ourselves with the allegation by Agba Jalingo because it’s very obvious there is something INEC is not telling us. The current stalemate orchestrated by the Resident Electoral Commissioner cast a lot of doubt about the level of transparency of the commission in CRS. While we reaffirm our trust in Prof Mahmoud Ibrahim, we cannot say the same about Pastor Prof. Gabriel Yomeri.
Our demands.
It is against the background of the foregoing that we make the following demands;
1. We demand the immediate redeployment of the Commissioner of Police and the DCP Operations for a poor relationship with the public and inability to gather and deploy sufficient intelligence to rescue the state from security challenges.
2. We call on the Inspector General of Police to immediately deploy a new and better experienced CP and especially CP Operations.
3. We want the next CP upon resumption of duty to effect a comprehensive reshuffling of Divisional Police Officers, DPO across the state and especially Cross River North which has become a major flashpoint of political violence in the state. This in our considered opinion is the only safety valve to remedy the already dilapidated security architecture in our State.
4. We give the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner 24 hours to allow political parties to inspect the BVAS in addition to taking full record of the IMEI number of the 3,281 BVAS machines to reignite and renew our confidence in the commission.
5. We call on the National Chairman of INEC to authorize a thorough investigation of the activities of the commission in CRS.
6. We urge political parties as they continue to intensify their campaigns to be civil in their conduct and to demonstrate high-level sportsmanship at the end of the election.
7. We urge citizens to intensify their vigilance on the process leading to the next election as the Osun State tribunal ruling has shown clearly that human influence is capable of compromising the forthcoming election despite the application of technology.
Finally, the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC is the umbrella body of all the 18 registered political parties in Nigeria registered and recognized by INEC. As a group, we are constitutionally empowered to serve as a gap or a liaison between the electorates and INEC. Our role, therefore, empowers us to take decisions that have to do with a free, fair, transparent and peaceful election. As we approach the 2023 general election, we have resolved to ensure that the 2023 election is conducted in all the 3,281 polling units in the 196 wards of the 18 Local government areas of the state. But in doing this, we have ABSOLUTELY RESOLVED that the 25th February and 11th March elections MUST be conducted in the most credible and transparent manner. We are therefore ready to deploy all our political arsenals to ensure that, unlike previous elections, this current election turns out to be the best ever conducted in the history of CRS.
The general public should note that we suspect a plan to rig the forthcoming election in CRS. This plan by powerful political forces is carefully contrived to use security and INEC as an unholy trinity to rig elections in the state. We call on the public to support IPAC to ensure that the importance well-meaning Nigerians place on the 2023 election is not truncated.
Thank you.
Comrade Anthony Bissong Attah Chairman, Inter Party Advisory Council, IPAC, CRS.
