LAGOS State Commissioner of Police (CP) Idowu Owohunwa has admitted incidences of violence and attacks on voters who came out to exercise their civic responsibilities during the gubernatorial and state assembly elections held on March 18.
“It is true that we recorded instances of violence in some areas within the state,” Owohunwa admitted in an interview with Channels Television.
Political thugs had rained widespread violence on voters in many parts of Lagos State during yesterday’s election, disenfranchising millions of voters and destroying polling units.
The Lagos CP however said the violence was “not as widespread as to affect the general dynamics of the process”, adding that most of the instances were “properly responded to by the police”.
According to Owohunwa, the Lagos State Police Command had anticipated violence in some flashpoint areas in the state.
“As security practitioners, when you plan operations of this nature, you must anticipate that some elements will want to become adversaries in the process.
“We anticipated and then we integrated that into our general operational plan and we activated that protocol effectively in this instance. Most of those breaches, the police were able to respond promptly.”
The Lagos CP noted that the incident that happened around VGC (Victoria Garden City) was as a result of the relocation of the polling units from within the estate to a location outside the [VGC] gate.
“That falls within the mandate of INEC, and when my attention was drawn to it, I drew the attention of the REC to the development. As we speak, he has personally gone to the location and is trying to engage the electorate, so that they can find a common ground,” he said.