By Monday Ijeh
The Inspector-General of Police (I-G), Mr Usman Baba, has called on senior police officers to recommit themselves to national duty ahead of the March 11, governorship and State Assembly elections.
Baba made the call on Monday in Abuja at the opening of a meeting with Strategic Police Managers, consisting of officers from the rank of Commissioner of Police (CP) and above.
He said the call was to sustain the high operational level, attracting broad commendation to the police from the just concluded presidential and National Assembly elections.
The I-G said the meeting would be utilised to re-energise the operational plan of the Force and strengthen the attainment of its election security mandate ahead of the March 11 elections.
“As we prepare for the governorship and state assembly phase of the general of elections, I charge you all to recommit yourselves to national duty.
“You must be prepared to work more assiduously towards providing the requisite strategic leadership in your various posts.
“This is to guarantee an electoral and general public space that will remain stable, peaceful and secured to keep citizens in no doubt of our commitment to their yearnings for a credible electoral process.
“The starting point to this is to ensure that the tension which the process and outcome of the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections generated is
mitigated proactively.
”The idea is to ensure that the tension does not snowball into a national security breach nor impact negatively on our democratic achievements,” he said.
He said that some unpatriotic elements had been attempting to negatively utilise the social media to post fake news, videos and other materials to heat up the polity, fuel political bitterness and enflame the national security space.
According to him, to douse this tension, I take particular cognisance of the initiative of the CP in charge of Lagos State, who in engaging a consultative approach, recently organised an allinclusive stakeholders meeting.
He said the CP succeeded in galvanising the citizens and strategic stakeholders in evolving a common front to advocate for peace and address the postelection security threats and apprehension in the state.
“Drawing on the effectiveness of this strategy in Lagos State, I hereby direct all the CP nationwide to return to their Commands and replicate the same initiative on or before Thursday as part of efforts to guarantee peace ahead of the March 11, elections,” he said.
Baba said the Nigeria Police responded to about 185 major incidents across the country during the elections with 203 offenders arrested and linked to various electoral offences and sundry crimes.
He said that18 firearms of various descriptions were recovered from political thugs during the exercise.
The I-G said all the cases were at various stages of investigations at the Nigeria Police Electoral Offences Desks.
He said the cases would be concluded in due course and processed to the Legal Department of the Independent National Electoral Commission for prosecution. (NAN)
