By Love Wilhelmina Abanonave
Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Security and Counterterrorism, Emmanuel Kotin has emphasized that electoral activities should never involve the military going forward so as not to repeat the violence that happened during the 2020 and 2024 elections.
Speaking on GBC’s ‘Current Agenda’ on Saturday, November 8, 2025, Mr. Kotin stressed that the police and other allied internal security agencies were capable of handling election security, and it’s time to rethink the involvement of the military in such activities.
“The police and other allied internal security agencies are equally regimental and can bear weapons too so let’s look at how we handle our elections going forward”, he said.
Mr. Kotin also pointed out that the military’s role is to protect the country from external threats, whereas the police are trained to handle internal security and are more suited to managing elections. He noted that the involvement of the military in the 2020 and 2024 elections resulted in violence and fatalities, highlighting the need for a change in approach.
According to him, “we think the military is more superior and that when they lead an operation, there will be a favorable outcome but it rather gave us the reverse”.
This follows the report presented by Interior Minister, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak on November 4, 2025 which identified 12 cases of election-related violence during the 2020 and 2024 general elections, resulting in 15 deaths and 40 injuries. The investigation by the Special Investigative task force found that armed police patrol teams were responsible for four deaths, while military personnel were linked to three fatalities.
