Saturday elections: Police'll deal ruthlessly with trouble makers - DIG Inuwa
Says officers have been trained and retrained , huge sums of money spent to ensure that peace reigns in the country
By Oloyede Emmanuel
The Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police in charge of North West zone, Hafiz Muhammad Inuwa, has read the riot act to prospective troublemakers, warning that the Police were ready to deal ruthlessly with anybody that foments trouble during and after the Saturday elections.
Speaking with pressmen on Wednesday, DIG Inuwa said: "We belong to everybody and we belong to nobody. If you disobey the rule ,we will certainty deal with you, but whoever tries to test our collective resolve, we are ready to deal ruthlessly with anybody who tries to foment trouble especially here in Kano.
"And wherever in this country; the President had spoken in clear terms ,the IGP had equally spoken in clear terms and am going to repeat to officers and men that anybody who tries to come out with a view to causing havoc, disenfranchising the law-abiding citizens, whatever happens to that person, they know the consequence; we will be very clear and we are not going to mince words or our actions to deal with such people who do not mean well for this country.
"We want to surprise everybody, that will determine which way the Nigeria Police will go, or what is in the mind of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) is the peace and tranquility and the successful conduct of free, fair and credible election. That is what informed the general posting and deployment of Police personnel from across the nation
"We have kept our security personnel informed of what is enshrined in the constitution, the series of offences in the Electoral Act during and after the election and what were extracted from them.
"Officers have been trained and retrained all along and the IGP has spent huge sums of money in this exercise, in an effort to ensure that peace reigns in the country.
He commended journalists, saying "I am happy with a lot of your reports; you commended the efforts of the Nigeria police on ways and manner the security operatives handled the last presidential and National Assembly election.
"My coming this time around is to equally talk to our officers, that we must be firm, focused, professional and to discharge our duties like always and maintain that the police remains apolitical. "
He explained that the recent posting of Police personnel to Kano state was not peculiar to the state, that it was a general deployment or posting of officers across states in the federation.
