The Lagos Police Command has deployed over 27,000 personnel to ensure peaceful conduct of Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections.
Speaking on Thursday at a meeting with police officers of the Lagos State Police Command geared towards election preparedness, the Deputy Inspector General, Force Operations, DIG Johnson Babatunde Kokumo, on behalf of Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, charged police personnel on election duty to adhere to policing responsibility as regards the 2023 general elections.
“We are to ensure that the election is peaceful, free of crisis and fair,” Kokumo said.
The DIG highlighted that police officers must be apolitical to achieve a peaceful election, urging senior police officers in attendance to ensure that they abide by the Electoral Act by ensuring that the election was free, fair and credible in all parts of the state.
“We are supposed to be apolitical. We should not unleash terror on the members of the public. Don’t use arm on harmless members of the public,” Kokumo said.
“We are to be civil, respect the rights of citizens. We are to collaborate with sister security agencies, but we are to take lead according to the Electoral Act,” he said.
He further said that the IGP has ordered for a special deployment in the air, land and water, with collaboration with sister security agencies operating in those areas.
The DIG urged the command to set up a special electoral investigation team at the State CID where all cases and arrests relating to the elections would be treated immediately.
He also urged the command to ensure that the border posts were well policed with a view to preventing non-Nigerians’ incursion during the elections.
In his contribution, the Commissioner, Lagos command, CP Idowu Owohunwa, assured the DIG that the police in Lagos would not disappoint the residents and the nation at large.
“I assured DIG that we will not fail in Lagos as a command with God’s guidance and commitments of the men I have. We will not fail the nation.
“We assured people in Lagos State that we will not fail in our elections duties. We shall make the nation proud,” Owohunwa added.
