Ahead of the Saturday, October 10 election in Ondo State, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, has authorised the deployment of 33, 783 personnel to the state.
Their assignment is to guarantee security during the election. Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting in Akure ahead of the vote, Adamu, said the deployment would comprise 30,933 conventional police personnel and 2,850 special police units.
He also said that the police deployment would be complemented by an additional 3,500 manpower that will be drawn from other security agencies.
Adamu said the personnel would be deployed to secure the 3,009 polling units in 203 Wards spread over the 18 Local Government Areas of the state. He said the security agents would provide protection for the personnel and assets of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the electorate, and the residents of Ondo State in general before, during and after the elections.
His words: “In order to mitigate the identified threats, we shall be deploying, aside from our intelligence assets, a total of 33,783 police personnel on election security duty in Ondo State. This will comprise of 30,933 conventional police personnel and 2,850 special police units. The Police deployment will be complemented by an additional 3,500 manpower that will be drawn from other security agencies,” he said.
He also added that the army would be engaged to secure the inter-state borders while the Nigeria Police Air Wing would provide air surveillance.
The police chief said the measures were undertaken after security threat assessment and all the flashpoints and actors engaged in or planning to threaten the electoral process in Ondo State whom he said were identified and strategies put in place to thwart their criminal, unpatriotic and undemocratic intentions.
“As we are all aware, there have been pockets of violent attacks by political opponents against each other in some areas in the state particularly in Akoko and Ipele axis. “As condemnable as these incidents are, because electioneering campaigns are avenues for the candidates to market their manifestos to the electorates and not arenas of conflicts”, he said, warning that “it would appear that those bent on causing political crises in the State are clearly testing our collective will to decisively deal with such threats.”
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