Police happy with its Ekiti, Osun polls performance, to repeat same in 2019

The Nigerian Police has said that getting the same result it recorded during the recent Ekiti and Osun states governorship elections in the coming 2019 general elections would be a plus for the force.

This was stated by the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, on Tuesday at a two-day train the trainers’ workshop for senior police officers on election security management for the 2019 general elections in Abuja.

Both local and international election monitoring groups had accused the Nigerian police of a poor showing during the last two elections referred to, especially that of Osun State.

The opposition had claimed that the police helped the ruling All Progress Congress (APC) to compromise those elections and had continued to insist that the IGP should be sacked if there would be any hope of having the police being neutral during the coming polls.

But the IGP, who was represented at the event by the Commissioner of the Police Training College, Maiduguri, Reuben Akpan, said: “This workshop is coming at the right time; it came at the right time. With the inputs from the Commissioners of Police, we have been having talks like this before, in addition to training like this. Definitely, it will cement some of the loopholes the police officers have during previous elections.

“Different people are entitled to their opinions. Under the IGP, the elections that were conducted in Ekiti and Osun states, foreign media made issues about it. If we can take that as a standard, that will be a plus for the police force. But we should be fair and neutral in our conduct.”

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According to him, the workshop was very vital as it identified threats that possibly may trigger violence in the 2019 general elections.

Assuring that the Police will work with CLEEN Foundation and the Police Service Commission, the IGP added, “We believe this will enhance the conduct of the officers and ensure service delivery for credible and violent-free 2019 general elections. As we go into the elections, the Police Service Commission has promised that they are going to monitor the elections.”

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