By Adedapo Adesanya
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Kayode Egbetokun, has revealed the plans by the Nigeria Police Force to ensure the smooth running of the November 11 governorship elections in Imo, Kogi, and Bayelsa States.
Appearing as a guest on Channels Television’s People’s Townhall on Election Security in Abuja on Sunday, Mr Egbetoku said the agency was adequately prepared for the exercise, assuring voters that the polls would be hitch-free.
He said that since the elections will take place in only three states, the police will draw personnel from across the remaining 33 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to support the already existing security architecture put in place.
“We are ready for this election, we have been able to deploy adequately for this election. In Bayelsa, we will be covering 2,224 polling units and we have enough men and resources to cover those polling units,” he stated.
“We have also made adequate arrangements for both Imo and Kogi. We have done our threat assessments, and we already know how to carry out our deployments which we have already done.
“I want to assure you that the police and other security agencies are ready for this election and we are sure it is going to be hitch-free,” the police chief added.
The IGP stated that the deployment, which has already started, would be completed by Friday, about 24 hours before the governorship elections in the three states.
The police chief admitted that Kogi, Imo, and Bayelsa are volatile states and said he is aware of what happened in the last general elections.
“We are going to leverage our understanding of what happened in the last election. We want to do many things differently in this election because we have more resources to deploy for this election.
“We are very comfortable that the election this period in these three states is going to be better than the previous elections,” he said.
In a related development, The Coalition for A Better Nigeria, otherwise known as June 12 Veteran Activists, has warned against election violence and riggings in the forthcoming governorship elections in Kogi, Imo, and Bayelsa states.
In a statement, it said, “While we call on the electorate to go out en mass and cast their votes without fair and favour, we advise the political thugs, hoodlums, election riggers, unknown gunmen and bad eggs among the INEC and Security Agencies to steer clear of these 3 States during the election because there would be no hiding place for them.”
