Nigeria: Can the President Deploy Military Personnel During Elections?

31 March 2015

Amidst serious security and other concerns, the much awaited presidential elections have held across the country, but a major legal contention was whether President Goodluck Jonathan has the constitutional powers to deploy military troops during elections. The Federal High Court ruled last Wednesday that the military should not be deployed for elections, Chief Mike Ozekhome SAN contends that although the President has the powers to deploy the military, it should only be with utmost caution and only in cases of insurrection.

One of the hottest trending topics in the Media (Print, Electronic, Social etc) of recent is the proprietary or otherwise of deploying the military to provide security during elections. The cacophonous tunes reached an astonishing crescendo with the judgment of the Court of Appeal in the case of ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS v PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY & ORS CA/EK/EPT/GOV/1/2015 delivered on Monday, the 16th day of February, 2015.

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