Police Deploys Over 40,000 Personnel for Kogi State Governorship Election 

The Kogi state Commissioner of Police ,CP, Bethrand Onuoha says over 40,000 policemen will be deployed across the state.

He said this was to ensure peaceful conduct of the Saturday 11th, November Off-Cycle governorship election in the state.

Onuoha said the planned large number of personnel was due to the past experiences in the state, where violence was recorded during elections.

He said with the presence of adequate security personnel in Kogi state, everybody should endeavour to come out and exercise his or her civic right in the Saturday governorship election.

“We are going to swam the state with enough security personnel and by the special grace of God, with our actions and sanctions, we are going to confront our detractors,” he said.

“God is telling me that this election is going to be better than all the elections ever held here in Kogi.

“We have directed our personnel to be fair to everybody because we come here to serve the people and not any particular individual.” he said.

The CP urged politicians to play according to the rules of the game, saying that elections would come and go, while the people would remain.

“We expect that they should adopt politics without bitterness. Your brother is your brother, no matter where he belongs politically, ” he said.

Onuoha warned troublemakers especially political thugs, not to try anything funny as regards the election as security operatives are battle-ready to deal with them.

“In election, you don’t use matches and guns to force people to give you votes. Such people will meet the wrath of the law.

“What we want in Kogi is a peaceful and successful election. Therefore, politicians must play according to the rules of the game or be dealt with.

“The traditional rulers should help us talk to their subjects to maintain peace throughout the election period because it will come and go and we will all remain as residents,” said the police chief.

Earlier, the 18 political parties featuring in the election  signed a peace accord, ahead of the poll on Wednesday.

Some of the parties were the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Labour Party (LP) and the Action Alliance (AA).

The Chairman of the National Peace Committee, General Abdulsalam Abubakar represented by the Cardinal John Onaiyekan, appealed to the candidates to play politics by the rules and abide by the accord during the election.

Confidence Okwuchi