INSPECTOR-General of Police (IGP) Muhammad Adamu introduced another dimension to news of irregularities that characterised the governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states on November 16.
After a meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and security chiefs three days later, Adamu responded to allegations that security agents, particularly police officers, colluded with thugs to steal ballot boxes and disrupted voting at polling units.
Adamu said: “During the elections, anybody you saw either in police uniform or military uniform that does not carry the tag that has been given for the election, that person is not a genuine police officer or military officer or that he was not on official duty.”
“Because, we were aware of the fact that or we were told that some politicians were going to sew police and military uniforms, so we devised some other means of identifying those that were on election duty.”
Adamu needs to substantiate his claim that fake policemen were responsible for the alleged irregularities. For instance, PREMIUM TIMES reported that “Our journalists in Kogi witnessed how armed men, including those with police escorts, raided polling units and snatched ballot boxes.”
The Nigeria Police Force said it deployed 66,241 policemen in the governorship elections, 35,200 in Kogi State and 31,041in Bayelsa State. In addition, there were the police mobile force, special protection unit, counter-terrorism unit and other security outfits. The IGP also ordered the posting of deputy inspectors general of police (DIGs), AIGs, CPs, DCPs, and ACPs to all senatorial districts and local government areas in the two states.
If so many genuine policemen were on the ground, they should have apprehended some of the alleged fake policemen. Or is it the case that the genuine policemen couldn’t identify the alleged fake policemen?
It is noteworthy that a senior fellow of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Jibrin Ibrahim, observed during a press conference in Abuja: “But on the ground, that massive deployment was not visible to eyes. Maybe they took another form because you know we are in Africa. We went through a lot of the roads leading out of Lokoja and there were no checkpoints and because the police were not there to check, those who were moving around, were armed thugs in vans, carrying weapons and moving systematically from polling units.”
This observation means that beyond the alleged fake policemen, the genuine policemen underperformed. What’s the use of police involvement in elections if they can’t help make elections free and fair?
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