Consistent with the mission of CLEEN Foundation hinged on the promotion of public safety and security in Nigeria, it observed the Governorship election in Ekiti State, with a specific focus on the security dimensions of the election

The mission was in furtherance of a series of interventions earlier made by the organisation to enhance electoral security in the state.

Such interventions included the deployment of INEC’s Electoral Institute Election Violence Mitigation and Advocacy Tool, the analysis of our research findings from the EVMAT and release of a comprehensive report on Election Security Threat Assessment focusing on different aspects of security issues in the election; and the widespread dissemination of the STA report among stakeholders, most especially INEC, security agencies, civil society and the media.

The CLEEN Foundation deployed 43 observers across the 16 LGAs of the state.

These include 32 stationary observers, 4 roving observers, 4 call centre managers and 3 field supervisors who worked with checklists focusing on the deployment and conduct of security officers during the election.

General Observations on the Deployment and conduct of Security Agents

Our observers found that the adequate provision of election security by security agencies largely explains the substantial improvement in the effectiveness of the administration of the 2018 Ekiti governorship election. Security agents were found to have demonstrated exemplary professionalism that has been missing in previous elections. In particular, security agencies were found to have excelled in the following ways:

CLEEN Foundation says it is pleased and satisfied with the high level of professionalism, competence and general capacity demonstrated by INEC, political parties, security agencies, civil society organisations, the electorate and related stakeholders in the administration of the Ekiti Governorship election.

According to it, the processes will appear to have largely passed the electoral integrity test and the outcome of a true reflection of popular votes cast, saying there is still room for improvement.

It considers the following recommendations as pertinent.

There is need to pay more attention to the welfare needs of security agents so as to get them fully motivated and committed to the tasks of electoral security.

The Police authorities should learn from the success of the Ekiti experience and always pay their officers ahead of election days.

All security agents deployed for election duties should be made to sign an oath of allegiance to Police Service Commission Guidelines for the Conduct of Police Officers on Electoral Duty the violation of which should attract severe penalty.

More professional and periodic training for security agents on the theory and practice of election security should be encouraged, saying the deployment of the military for election duties remains contentious and should be reconsidered, except where absolutely inevitable, the military should not be deployed for election duties.

The question of ‘adequacy’ of security agents too deserves a re-consideration, especially in terms of the number of security agents required per Polling Unit, saying the Nigeria Police should work closely with INEC to ascertain the minimum threshold of police officers to be deployed to the polling unit using the voters register by the INEC.

CLEEN Foundation is grateful to the European Union under its Project to enhance Democratic Governance in Nigeria for the support to mitigate electoral violence in the 2018 Governorship Election in Ekiti State