Barely 24 hours to the presidential election, the Nigeria Police Force, has assured the electorates that no policeman will aid any politician in subverting the will of the people.
The police also said that they have mapped out areas considered as flashpoints and extra hands have been deployed to those areas.
This was disclosed by the Deputy Inspector General of Police, in charge of North-Central Zone of the Country, Godwin Nwobodo, while addressing police officers and men at the Police Headquarters in Jos, the Plateau State Capital.
Nwobodo said,”No policeman will help any politician to subvert this election.
“If any policeman gets himself then too bad, because we have police regulations when you misbehave, and this is also an emergency duty, so the punishment is dismissal period, once your found wanting.
“The police is over hundred years old, the police is an institution. The police is even older than the present political system we have and we are stakeholders; in the sense that we are Nigerians, we leave here.
“If there is a breakdown of law and order, would I fly to the moon? He asked.
He said senior officers from all departments have been deployed from the headquarters to ensure that everything went smoothly.
“You will even find out that Commissioners of police will be in charge senatorial zones during the elections in some cases it might even be Assistant Inspector General of Police, that shows how serious we take this election.
According to him, “We have over five thousand policemen and about three thousand operatives or members of other security agencies, such as FRSC, NSCDC, Prisons, Immigration.
“The military will also be on patrol, they are not going to be at the polling units, but they would be strategically positioned so as to deter those who may want to disrupt the election.
He said the policemen have undergone series of workshops and trainings, on election guidelines and they have been lectured and groomed on what to do what not to do.
The DIG maintained that the policemen have been well mobilized as even their allowances have been paid to them.
“One way or the other is one person that will win the election, and wherever I have gone I have told them that whoever wins is a Nigerian; we don’t have a Chadian or a Cameroonian contesting here, they should accept the results of the election.
“We have done our analysis, and have mapped those areas we consider flashpoints and we will make sure that extra hands have been deployed to those areas.
The police boss urged the policemen to remember that it’s a national assignment and shouldn’t do anything to scuttle the process, saying we have no other country but Nigeria.
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