We Are Ready For Imo, Bayelsa, Kogi Polls – Egbetokun

With less than one week to the November 11 off-season governorship elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa States, the Inspector General of Police of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has said the Police is ready for the conduct of the polls, adding that it has done the required threat assessments.

He stated this at the People’s Townhall on Election Security plans on how to ensure credible and safe polls.

The event was hosted by Channels Television in partnership with Kimpact Development Initiative.

The programme is further supported by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Also present at the event was national security adviser, Nuhu Ribadu; chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu.

Others are the national chairman, Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Yabagi Sani; the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje; the national chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure; amongst others.

Speaking on the Police preparation for the polls, said the Force is adequately prepared for the exercise, assuring voters that the elections will be hitch-free.

He said the Force will draw personnel from across the remaining 33 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to support the already existing security architecture.

“We have also made adequate arrangements for both Imo and Kogi. We have done our threat assessments, and we already know how to carry out our deployments which we have already done.

“I want to assure you that the police and other security agencies are ready for this election and we are sure it is going to be hitch-free.”

The IGP stated that the deployment which has already started will be completed by Friday, about 24 hours before the governorship elections in the three states.

With records of violence in previous elections in the three states, concerns about voter apathy have been rife in light of pre-election violence and inciting comments by some political actors.

However, the IGP who admitted that Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa are volatile states, said he is aware of what happened in the last general elections.

“We are going to leverage on our understanding of what happened in the last election. We want to do many things differently in this election because we have more resources to deploy for this election.

“We are very comfortable that the election this period in these three states is going to be better than the previous elections,” he said.

End.