The Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Garba Umar, has given assurance of adequate security for the state’s governorship election coming up on November 18, 2017.
Speaking to journalists recently, Umar gave details of how the election primaries ran hitch-free especially because of efforts by the police, and how the conduct of the main election would be in like manner.
According to him, plans have been made for deployment of security personnel totaling about 16,000 for the over 4,000 polling units.
He said: “As you are aware, we conducted about 35 primaries for the 35 political parties that are contesting for the November 18 gubernatorial election in the state.
“All the primaries were done successfully without any hitch, security was provided adequately, and we were able to sectorise all the major areas in the state.
“For the November 18 also, what we did was to look at possible areas first, what are the flash points, the black spots; second, where are the polling booths, we assess their position and situation and we look at our deployment, how many personnel do we need.
“We discovered that we have 4,608 polling units – these polling units will be manned by four police officers each about four security agencies in each of the polling units, and when you multiply that it would give you about 16,000 and also what we did was to identify how many streets that we think we may have problems with.
“We looked at the waterways. We have about three major areas where the riverine area may cause a problem for us – we were able to secure the police boats.
These boats will be used to convey both our materials as well as our personnel that will provide a safe atmosphere for the conduct of the election.”
Furthermore, Mr. Umar maintained that Anambrans have always been peaceful people and have always had faith in the security agencies. He, therefore, expressed hope that the peace will not be breached during the election.
The Police boss also gave a warning to individuals who may want to perpetrate any crime, insisting that the police was well prepared to handle any breach of law and order.
“The Anambrans have a firm belief in the security agencies in the state, that they can deliver, and they can provide security for them.
“For those who think they can import or bring about thugs into the state, we are appealing to you; do not because we have all what it takes, we have information and we are advising them just as we did in the primaries, don’t come to Anambra, clear away, allow the electoral process to pass without hindrance,” Umar added.
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