IN line with precedents established by his predecessors, President Muhammadu Buhari ignored court rulings (including the verdict by Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Lagos in March 2015) that presidents lack the power to deploy the military for electoral duties as it negates democratic practice.
Shortly before the rescheduled Presidential and National Assembly elections, Buhari deployed the military and ordered them to be ruthless with ballot box snatchers and ensure election riggers “paid with their lives”. Responding, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen Tukur Buratai, affirmed that the Army would carry out the President’s order in line with constitutional injunctions.
If the Army and other armed state agencies had restricted themselves to safeguarding the election materials, electoral officials, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, facilities and the electorate , few Nigerians would have reasons to complain.
The sanctity and integrity of the 2019…
