The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission INEC Professor Mahmood Yakubu has on Tuesday, 21 February 2023 presented Code of Conduct and Rules of Engagement for Security personnel on duty, to Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) jointly signed by National Security Adviser Co-Chair, ICEES Retired Major General Babagana Monguno, Inspector-General of Police Usman Alkali Baba and INEC Chairman in Abuja.
Prof Yakubu while presenting the Code of Conduct the requirement to provide a safe and secure environment for the conduct of electoral and electioneering activities is essential to the development, deepening and consolidation of democracy and democratic governance.
He said the conduct of regular, periodic, free, fair, credible, inclusive and safe elections is at the very core of democracy.
Since it was establishment in 2011, the Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) which brings together security and other State agencies and institutions responsible for securing elections under a common umbrella with INEC has evolved as an effective and widely accepted body for managing electoral security in Nigeria.
Accroding to INEC Chairman, the 2023 General Election will be the third electoral cycle during which ICCES will be working together under a common platform with INEC to promote cooperation, coordination and synergy among member agencies to address the challenge of election security in Nigeria.
In his word, the National Security Adviser Co-Chair, ICEES Retired Major General Babagana Monguno ably represented by Sanusi Galadima, commended the INEC Chairman, and the entire workforce headed by your able leadership for letting determination toward ensuring free, fair and credible elections in the country, this has been exemplified in the consistent high level stakeholder engagement by the Commission with all the major political actors, institutions, international observers and the media ahead of the effort making national election.
The NSA emphasised that strong commitment among critical stakeholders in the electoral process, strict adherence to the rules of the game by the political actors and the security personnel exhibiting high level of repressionalism critical toward achieving a successful incredible election.
The NSA equally and respectively acknowledged the critical role of the National Peace Committee towards the escalating the usual anxieties that characterised the buildup to country general elections cycles.
Furthermore, he also applauded the effort of ICEES members, for the recent harmonise code of conduct and rules of engagement for security agencies in electoral duties.
The foregoing will undoubtedly enhance synergy and collaboration among member agencies to effectively mitigate in distress threat during enforced election faces.
The NSE, however, observed with serious concern the escalation of violent electioneering campaign across the country, this is despite the peace accord and those but all the presidential flag bearers, this ugly trend is predicated largely on the attitude of political actors there, sponsored ts and other unpatriotic elements to rule unguarded utteutterances.
He added that security agencies have been charged to ensure a robust deployement to deal decisively with any individual or group, no matter how highly blessed.
He therefore order the Commission to reiterate the need for the presidential candidate to overhaul their commitment to peaceful upcoming elections during the next round of national peace accord.
Over the years and based on lessons learnt from each General Election and other elections since 2011, ICCES has found it necessary to review and strengthen the collaboration among member agencies with specific reference to their functions, roles and responsibilities. This is with the objective of improving inter-agency efficiency, enhance information flow and to facilitate rapid response in the effective management of electoral security by "acting as one".
In the run-up to the 2019 General Election, significant efforts were made to develop a single, harmonized code of conduct and rules of engagement for member agencies to provide common standards of behaviour during electoral duty.
This was done without prejudice to the unique characteristics and idiosyncrasies of each of the services. Since then, there has been significant improvement in the cooperation and synergy between the Police as the lead agency in election security and other agencies especially in the area of training, deployment, operation of a joint election situation room and the adoption of a harmonized code of conduct and rules of engagement for their personnel on electoral duties.
The ICCES code of conduct and rules of engagement for security personnel on electoral duty has been reviewed based on the field experiences and input received from member agencies.
The updated document not only demonstrates the strength of inter-agency cooperation within ICCES but also reaffirms the commitment of member agencies to support the conduct of peaceful elections and democratic consolidation.
The personnel of member agencies of ICCES are therefore implored to conduct themselves in accordance with the code of conduct and adhere strictly to the provisions of the rules of engagement for the deliver, one, fair, credible and inclusive elections in Nigeria.