THE Rivers State Police Command has said its officials are better prepared to handle security issues which may arise from the forthcoming governorship and state house of assembly elections slated for Saturday, March 18.
Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Elections, Kayode Egbetokun disclosed this during a press briefing on Thursday, March 16.
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“The three-week period that we had between the last election and now have been utilised to cross our t’s and dot our i’s in preparing for this election. We, therefore, look forward to a better election on Saturday,” he said.
He stated that disruption of the process would not be tolerated as the Command had massively deployed officials ahead of the elections.
“You will recall that 3 weeks ago, exactly on the 25th of February, the presidential and National Assembly elections were conducted in this state just as in other states of the Federation. It wasn’t a perfect election, but it was a successful election.
“In Rivers state, there were pockets of incidents that were reported which the police and other security agents responded to as quickly as possible.
“By this Saturday, we’ll be having our gubernatorial and house of assembly elections in this state. I want to assure you that the synergy that is existing between the police and other sister agencies in this state will be taken advantage of in this election,” he said.
Results of the presidential and National Assembly elections in Rivers state have been faulted by many, including Civil Society Organisation (CSO), Yiaga Africa.
The CSO described the results as inconsistent with their observations of the exercise.
The presidential and National Assembly elections in the state was also marred by incidents of violence.
However, Egbetokun noted that relevant laws would be enforced by the police to ensure peaceful and successful elections.
“We are not going to take anything for granted. All persons who are criminally minded and who may want to come out and disrupt this election are hereby warned to have a change of mind,” Egbetokun said.
He urged citizens to come out and vote for their preferred candidates, adding that the police would provide level playground during the exercise.
He also said restriction of movement during the elections, would be strictly enforced.
The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba ordered the restriction of vehicular movement on roads, waterways and other channels of transportation across all states where governorship and House of Assembly elections will be conducted on Thursday March 16.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via vopara@icirnigeria.org or @ije_le on Twitter.