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Police to deploy over 33,000 security operatives for Ondo election
By Emmanuel Awosika
The Nigerian Police Force will deploy about 33,783 policemen for the coming Ondo Governorship Election holding on Saturday.
Inspector-General of the NPF, Mohammed Adamu, announced this while addressing the INEC stakeholders meeting in Ondo State on Monday.
Breaking down the figure, the IGP explained that security operatives comprised 30,933 regular policemen and 2,850 Special Police outfits.
He warned political thugs against trying to meddle in the elections, saying the Police had made plans to “frustrate their criminal, unpatriotic and undemocratic intentions.
His words: “In ensuring the credibility of the process, we have undertaken security threat assessment and all the flashpoints and actors engaged in, or planning to threaten the electoral process in Ondo State have been identified and strategies have been emplaced to frustrate their criminal, unpatriotic and undemocratic intentions.
“In order to mitigate the identified threats, we shall be deploying, aside 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. The Military will be engaged for the purpose 0f securing the Inter State borders while the Nigeria Police Airwing will provide air surveillance.
The rationale for these deployments is purposeful and strategic. Firstly, we are drawing from the experiences garnered in the recently concluded election and proactively responding to the outcome of the intelligence analysis arising from our election threat assessment of Ondo state governorship election.
“Secondly, the deployment is equally to deny misguided political actors that might be bent on threatening the elections through acts that are inimical to the dictates of the Electoral Act, the pleasure of manifesting their ignoble traits.”
