The acting Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu has given confidence of safety to election observers who are coming to monitor the elections coming up in Nigeria.
According to Nigerian Tribune, the Police Boss assured international observers of their safety ahead of the general elections. He gave the pledge on Tuesday at the national briefing of accredited observers (Foreign and Domestic) for the 2019 general elections.
Recall that while speaking last Wednesday in a live Nigeria Television Authority, (NTA) programme, Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir El- Rufai had warned that foreign observers who tried to interfere in the elections would return as body bags.
The acting Inspector General equally assured the observers of adequate protection but appealed to them to move around with their identification tags during the election. Adamu equally assured the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that the Police was determined to collaborate with them to check vote buying.
He said: “The security agents should look out for vote buyers and sellers. We are certainly going to make arrest. They must ensure adequate protection of electoral materials, main and ad-hoc staff and the observers. Let me assure the observers both foreign and domestic that you will be adequately protected before, during and after the general elections. The observers must wear identification tags throughout the process for easy identification.
“Anybody shouting party slogan, wearing branded party dresses, or campaigning on the polling stations shall be arrested. Any security agent at the polling station without identification tag shall be arrested. The security agents must ensure strict compliance with the restrictions on human and vehicular movement.”
The Acting IGP further revealed that six Deputy Inspector Generals of Police (DIGs) would be deployed to the six geopolitical Zones while 24 Assistant Inspectors Generals of Police (AIGs) would be deployed across the Zones.
Adamu said 36,000 tactical personnel would also be deployed in addition to regular police to beef up security on the election day. His words; “In the tactical unit, over 24,000 mobile police personnel will be deployed, 4000 counter-terrorism personnel will be deployed and about 8000 Special Protection Personnel will be deployed.”
“I work tirelessly with the INEC, with the office of the National Security Adviser and other security agencies to make sure that 2019 election is done in a secured manner, in a purely professional manner, in a way that a level playing field is provided for every political party and this indicates that all the security agencies will be impartial in the conduct of the 2019 general elections.
“All the Commissioners of Police in the States were made to identify the flashpoints within their States. To identify those that will cause what will lead to the disruption of elections and make sure that we bring them to order before the elections. That has been done.
“We have done the threat analysis in all the States Commands. The State Commissioners of Police are also going to identify all the polling units and voting points within the Commands in cooperation with the Resident Electoral Commissions to make sure that all the polling units are known before the day of the election. Apart from the regular police officers and other security agencies posted, we have our tactical units like the mobile police force, the counter-terrorism unit, our special protection unit are all deployed to give additional security,” he assured.
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