By Salisu Sani-Idris
Dr Peter Maigari, the Commandant, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), FCT Command, has disassociated the corps from the alleged interference with the election results of Feb. 12, chairmanship election of AMAC.’
Maigari made the denial, when he paid a courtesy call on the Executive Chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Mr Zakka Maikalangu, on Thursday in Abuja.
He was reacting to the allegations against NSCDC officer, Samuel Balogun as one of the security personnel suspected to be involved in the production of electoral results, different from that of INEC, which the Tribunal relied on for its judgment.
It will be recalled that the FCT Election Tribunal recently passed judgment against the incumbent AMAC chairman in favour of the APC AMAC chairmanship candidate, Murtala Karshi in the FCT area council chairmanship election.
The FCT NSCDC boss said that the corps was not aware of involvement of its personnel in the electoral process and Tribunal procedure.
According to him, as far as election security is concerned, the Nigeria Police is the lead agency, going by the Constitution and provisions of the INEC Act.
“To be candid with you, if not two days ago, I as the Commandant of the NSCDC, FCT Command, never heard of any of these things.
“Thank God that you were able to fish out the officer to be from the headquarters, so I may not have known if there was any communication between them and the headquarters, which the headquarters did not communicate to me.
“So, as far as election issues are concerned, I cannot prosecute electoral issues except the police. A Civil Defence staff, who spoke there is on his own, and I’m sure the Commandant General is not aware of this.
“So, I will address the issue with Commandant General. It is not in our character to malign, what we do is to correct the things we have said.
“My aim of being here today is to synergies with you. Even before the Tribunal ruling, you saw the letter congratulating you.
“That is to tell you that I was not privy to any because if there was something, I won’t congratulate you. All the six area councils’ chairmen, I wrote and signed the letters myself.
“I’m here to discuss with you and to put across to you some of our assistance as our host. As you can see you are the one who has most of the critical national assets and infrastructure.’’
Maigari, who said that AMAC was the seat of power in the country, added that everything that should happen to Nigeria, the best should be in the council.
“That alone should encourage and spur people to do the right thing. So, I’m calling on you to please, as I will reel out my request based on various submissions, and those you can assist us to do, please assist us to do them.
“Security is not just an individual affair, it is everyone. I used to tell people, one of the things we are still not able to understand is the issue of security. We are not taking it seriously.”
Ealier, the AMAC boss, assured the NSCDC in FCT that the council would synergise to make sure that “AMAC is safe’’. (NAN)
