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Inspector
General of Police, Solomon Arase
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The Inspector General of
Police, Solomon Arase, has ordered police officers not to accompany politicians
to polling centres during the gubernatorial election rerun in Southern Ijaw
Local Government of Bayelsa State on Saturday.
Media report continues:
Mr.
Arase gave the order through the Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police, Peter
Ogunyanwo, in Yenagoa, the state capital.
The
IG advised people in the area where the rerun election will hold to follow the
law and work towards a peaceful election.
He
argued that those aspiring to serve the people should not resort to a do or die
approach to attaining their goal.
He
said just as finishing touches were being given to preparations for the rerun,
the command on Thursday got a report of shootings in one communities in
Southern Ijaw.
The
police boss said on investigation it was found that a political officer holder
in the state went with a police personnel to a riverine community.
For
some undisclosed reasons, he said the police officers opened fire and disturbed
the peace of the area.
“The
IG promptly ordered the policemen should be withdrawn and we have done just
that. Right now we are waiting for them to report here at the headquarters,”
the commissioner said.
“The
instruction is that no police officer attached to political leaders should
escort them to polling booths during election.
“We
have the constitutional duty to protect them when their lives are threatened
and it was under that guide that we had policemen attached to them. But where
abuses are found, the IG does not hesitate to order for withdrawal and that is
what he has done in this case.
“I
want to appeal to troublemakers to realize that nobody is worth dying for and
that they are equally eligible to be voted for and so they have to remain alive
to be voted for.
“They
have to change their attitude because all our armed personnel are already on
ground and we will not take chances. Anybody caught on the other side of the law
will be prosecuted.”
He
denied that the police was preparing the grounds to rig election.
“The
allegation of the IG sending people here to rig election doesn’t hold. It is an
insult to the integrity of the Nigeria Police. We are here for everybody and that
was why in the last election, some police officers attached to an APC personnel
were arrested because they abused the process,” he said.
“We
rescued a lot of injured people in Brass and we treated them because it is our
constitutional duty to protect lives and property.”
He
said the constitution does not differentiate between the life of an All
Progressives Congress, APC or Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, members for
protection.
“We
advise that everybody limits their movements to the polling units where they
are to vote. We don’t want any movement from one polling unit to another
because it will amount to intimidation and campaign including political
leaders.
“The IG has ordered that no
police officer should escort any VIP to a polling center and we are going to
enforce that strictly,” he said.
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