'Lai Olurode and MK Hammanga TABLE 1 DEPLOYMENT OF SECURITY PERSONNEL AND VOTERS TURNOUT S/N STATE NUMBER OF VOTERS SECURITY PERSONNEL TURNOUT IN% 1. KOGI 9,348 39 2. ADAMAWA 9,395 37 3. BAYELSA 6,142 75 4. SOKOTO 10,819 30 5. CROSS RIVER 8,207 40 6. KEBBI 8,774 58 7. EDO 9,233 39 5.6 Conclusion This paper is an exploratory study in the deployment of security forces during elections. Its starting point is that deployment is a technical word which is used by security communities. In its strict security usage, it means being posted out of base on special assignment. When on deployment, security personnel are considered as being on temporary posting, mostly outside their countries but could also be within in periods of uprising to restore law and order or make sure that a tense situation does not boil over. In the paper, we also outlined the key contending perspectives on deployment of security personnel for election and concluded that there was no basis to suspect that the 80 ELECTION SECURITY IN NIGERIA: MATTERS ARISING Deployment of Security Personnel in Elections: Challenges and Lessons from the Field deployment of security personnel is a factor in voters' apathy. If field experiences are anything to go by, potential voters seem to have their confidence in the electoral process rekindled each time security personnel put up appearances in the voting zones. When security personnel act ethically during elections, they are applauded by the electorates and with a sense of gratitude. In the considered view of the authors of this paper, it is indeed premature for Nigerians to expect that they can administer their elections without the presence of security personnel as it is done in most of the developed Western democracies. Among the critical factors in the deployment of security personnel are objective and subjective ones but, the role of ethics is crucial and decisive. There are, however, challenges in the deployment of security personnel. These mainly revolve around welfare issues. The paper suggests that in order to leverage the objective criteria in deployment, there is need for a template that should serve as a guide to deployment. This guide should contain the need for a committee on security personnel deployment, and clearly spell out its membership at the state and local government levels. To our mind, electoral officers, representatives of contesting political parties and representatives of civil society organisations should be members of this committee. The committee itself should be constituted well ahead of elections and the required data needed to plan a scientific deployment which is based primarily on objective factors must be gathered in advance. It is hoped that with this, some of the existing gaps in the deployment of security personnel which erode their effectiveness would be overcome. The electoral process would become better for this. ELECTION SECURITY IN NIGERIA: MATTERS ARISING 81