The Federal Capital Territory Police Command says it has put extensive security measures in place ahead of the FCT council elections, with large-scale deployments across polling units.
Speaking to Channels Television on Saturday, FCT Commissioner of Police Miller Dantawaye said personnel had been deployed in significant numbers to safeguard the electoral process. He added that the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, ordered the deployment of an additional commissioner of police and other officers from Force Headquarters to support operations.
“Deployments have commenced and virtually concluded. For us, every polling unit, as at this point, should have men unless they are a bit late. Electoral materials, to the best of my understanding, have started to arrive at polling units from RAC centers, which is what we charged INEC to do. INEC is also very disposed to it. They made that commitment, so materials policemen have started arriving there,” the CP said.
“As it is, our reason for ensuring that we commence early is to commence accreditation and voting in good time, conclude in good time, and then, if possible, the whole process ends in good time.
“FCT Police Command is committed; we are very ready, we’ve deployed massively. Monitoring of the elections has commenced.
“The Inspector General of Police, in his wisdom, has deployed massively from the Force Headquarters to give us support. As it is today, there’s another commissioner of police that has come to support us in monitoring so many officers from the headquarters at all cutting across all ranks, cutting across all ranks.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission is conducting the polls in Abuja, where more than 1.5 million residents with Permanent Voter Cards are expected to vote for grassroots leaders.
