Ahead of Saturday’s governorship election in Kogi State, no fewer than 5000 operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) have been deployed to ensure maximum security around polling units and safeguard electoral.
Speaking to LEADERSHIP through his Public Relations Officer, Mr. Oke Emmanuel, the NSCDC Commandant, Prof. Ade Abolurin, disclosed that, personnel had been drawn from neighboruing states to complement efforts of its staff in Kogi State, an act, which according to him, the action will enable them cover the exercise effectively without compromising the peoples’ confidence on them.
The Corps Commandant, who stated that his men were prepared and well equipped to protect life and property during the election, said,”We have the necessary equipment and manpower, and the Federal Government has made available all that will be required by us and other security agencies to provide the needed security during the election.
“We have to play our individual and collective roles that will ensure successful and violence-free elections.’’ He added that if all the other security agencies play their roles very well, the elections would be free, fair and credibly.
NSCDC Commandant, Abolurin, who further urged political actors to abide by electoral rules and to desist from engaging thugs and hoodlums to score cheap political points, said the warning was necessitated by the current upsurge in electoral crime as well as the need to arrest the ugly trend.
? ‘We are not ignorant of the deviant activities executed by power drunk politicians; this is why we are warning them in advance that Kogi state will not be a safe haven for criminals’, he added.
Reeling out some of these criminal activities to include; the use of thugs to intimidate, harm, or incapacitate political opponents, electoral officials and security operatives as well as showing total disregard for outlined guidelines, as approved by the electoral Act, at the venue of the exercise, the CG hinted that plans to deploy trained security dogs to boost his men’s performance were underway.