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The Force Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Police, CSP Anietie Okokon Iniedu, has assured the people of Osun State and all stakeholders that efforts are being put in place to ensure that Saturday’s gubernatorial election is peaceful.
Addressing journalists and other stakeholders at an engagement meeting at the Osun Police Command Headquarters in Osogbo, on Thursday, Iniedu explained that 15,000 police officers are already on the ground for the poll.
He said four unarmed police personnel would be deployed to each polling unit and called on voters to go out without fear, vote and return to their homes peacefully.
On the distribution of personnel, the Force PPRO explained, “We have men on patrol, and we have men stationed at strategic locations. As I speak to you, we have deployed one unit of armed mobile police officers to every local government area. So, we have 30 units across the local government areas.
A unit is actually about 60 police officers, including 50 armed police officers. So, we have a unit for each local government area.
We also have two units of armed mobile police officers attached to the Independent National Electoral Commission headquarters in Osogbo. We have two units of armed police officers posted there.
The men posted to the local government areas are being coordinated by a Commissioner of Police. There is a Commissioner of Police in each local government area.
We also have a Deputy Commissioner of Police in each local government area, as well as a Mobile Police Commander and a PMF Commander in each local government area. Those are our deployments so far.”
He said helicopter and drone units have arrived in Osogbo, and they would be conducting area surveillance before, during and immediately after the election.
The force image maker warned politicians against inflammatory remarks and urged parents to warn their wards against being used as political thugs.
He also announced a vehicular ban in the state from Saturday 12 am till the close of the election.
