Security agencies in Nigeria are to deploy heavily for the forthcoming governorship elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa states, the Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, has said.
Egbetokun said this on Friday at the meeting of the Interagency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) held at the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Nuhu Ribadu in Abuja.
He warned “certain elements” who are planning to frustrate the conduct of the November 11 polls to stay off or risk serious consequences.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, also urged security agencies to take decisive actions against perpetrators of election violence to serve as a deterrent to others.
Yakubu said the three States of Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi are not the easiest in Nigeria to conduct elections, due to the difficult geographical terrain, prevailing insecurity and negative mobilization by political actors.
He said the three States have 5,409,438 registered voters out of which 5,169,692 have collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).
Ribadu said that President Bola Tinubu’s administration is determined to conduct free, fair, credible and inclusive elections.
“This election will be better than any previous ones. It will be without violence, it will be free and fair and there will be no interferences”, he stated.
