Security Institute Holds Conference in Lagos

The Institute of Security, Nigeria, has concluded plans to organise its 14th annual security conference and investiture/induction on December 10-11 in Lagos.
The two-day conference with the theme ‘Enhancing Integrity and Security Solutions to Election Threats and Political Violence in Democratic Environment’, will be a dialogue between institutions and experts in political, legal and security sectors.

The Director-General of the institute, Mr. Adebayo Akinade, who announced this in Lagos, said the legal framework for election in the country appears to be deficient. He said there was a need for security agencies to step up neutrality to avoid aggravating tension.

He noted that the first step towards ensuring successful elections is to improve security, which would involve strengthening the credibility of security agencies and other sister agencies.

“Election security is issue of securing election through physical, personnel, information and election events, involving day of elections campaign and meetings,” stated Mr Akinade. “Security arrangements for election need to be improved, and security personnel should be better trained and guided to ensure that they act appropriately and respect the rights and freedom of voters, election monitors and journalists alike.”

He noted that agencies also needed to develop better institutional arrangements to secure elections, particularly by improving the capacity to inform, monitor and analyse threats.

Akinade added that the conference, therefore, sought to deal with both the legal and security implications of all the activities of stakeholders in election matters.

He mentioned the conference would also strive to provide clear insight into insecurity, election conflicts, political violence and the application of scientific and technological approaches to tackle challenges arising from election exercises.

The director-general noted that striking a balance between the legal, scientific and diplomatic processes and procedures relating to a broad spectrum of contemporary challenges in election matters would also be discussed.

He expressed hope that the conference would also stimulate creative, innovative, and critical thinking to enhance election systems and tackle related challenges.

“This conference will also recognise the potential for capacity building, which will be borne out of sharing of ideas, lessons and others experiences among legal, political, security and protection professionals,” added Akinade. “We seek to also assess the current situation of the election system and the architecture in view to identify the gaps and overlaps between various architectural elements to proffer solutions to security threats and application of strategy of election system among others.”