The Nigerian Police have reversed the threat of Indigenous People of Biafra’s ‘Vote and Die’ to ‘Vote and Live’, according to the Deputy Inspector –General of Police in charge of the polls, Mr. Habila Joshak, who leads operation ‘‘Show of Force’’ in the three senatorial districts of Anambra State on Thursday.
Joshak, who addressed troops and later addressed journalists at the police headquarters, Amawbia after the operation, said that the mandate handed down to him by the Inspector-General of Police was to be transparent, provide a level playing ground in terms of security and ensure that anything that threatens the election is removed.
He said that since Anambra governorship election was the only one coming up Saturday, November 18, 2017, it would be used to assess the performance of the Nigerian Police in terms of provision of security across all the sectors of the election.
According to him, the only way the election would be successful if for the politicians to follow the rue of the game and the police to serve as an arbiter that would not compromise security of officials and electoral materials.
He said that all the policemen deployed to Anambra for the election had been paid their allowances and a few that said they have not might not have alert system or may have filled another person’s name for payment because the pay is marched with the photograph of the payee.
As for security threat, Joshak said that he had been in Anambra before now to carry out physical threat analysis and some other factors that would pose challenges in the election.
According to him, as the security agencies do this, the police decided to provide adequate security for the 4680 polling units, all the 326 wards, all the collation centres; INEC and all places where election will take place.
Already, according to him, security had been mobilized in the areas and the ones remaining in the police headquarters are ‘stand-by’ who will be mobilized as and when and where necessary.
While addressing the troop, Joshak reminded them of the Inspector-General of Police policy of making policemen to be gentle to areas they were posted to duty as they will be responsible for their actions. ‘Don’t constitute a threat here”.
This, however, will not be at the expense of security He said: “It is vote and live. We have changed the narrative of IPOB. If you see anybody carrying arms and he is not doing anything, arrest him. If you see anybody shoot somebody and he is running, demobilize him.
He said that the police had already had meetings with all those involved in the election adding: “Today (Thursday) we went on show of strength in the three senatorial districts and assured the residents they should come out and vote.
“They should vote and live. We changed the narrative . We have enough men on ground”, he concluded.
