Police, NSCDC to deploy 360,000 operatives for polls

The Nigeria Police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps have concluded arrangements to deploy 360 personnel for the February general elections.

Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Suleiman Abba, said about 300, 000 of his officers had been trained in partnership with the Independent National Electoral Commission and development partners.

The Commandant-General, NSCDC, Dr. Ade Abolurin, revealed that 60, 000 of his officers would also provide security during the elections while the agency had also concluded plans to import 25 sniffer dogs from the US for the polls.

The IGP and Abolurin, who was represented by the Deputy Commandant-General (Operations), Mr. Evan Ewurum, spoke on Friday in Abuja during the closing ceremony of a two-day conference on the role of the State and Non-State actors in mitigating violence in elections with the theme, ‘Nigeria 2015 elections and Beyond’.

The event was organised by the Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development in collaboration with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

According to Abolurin, the NSCDC has completed plans to import 25 sniffer dogs from the United States to detect likely explosives during the elections.

The PUNCH recalls that the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, had set up an Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security to provide security needs during elections.

The committee co-chaired by the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), drew members from all the security agencies including the military.

But a representative of the Department of State Security, Mrs. Mary Otubu, who did not make public the number of officers the DSS would deploy for the exercise, assured voters and government officials of their safety.

‎Abba said, “Policing the society has always been a challenge; all the police officers will be deployed in the elections; over 300, 000 officers will be used. The Commonwealth has also offered to help us in that respect of training by January 21. Some of the training are even train-the-trainers until it gets to the last person on their roles during the election.”

The IGP stated that the role of security agencies before, during and after the election were pivotal to the enthronement of a viable democratic culture.

According to him, the Federal Government has provided non-leather weapons and about 2,000 patrol vehicles to ensure the police perform their duties in the election period.

While reacting to the prosecution of electoral offenders, the IG said the police had the mandate to perform their duty only on the authorisation of INEC.

Speaking on when a police officer should use firearms during elections, Abba said the time would depend on the discretion of the officers “but in compliance with the Police Act.”

He added, “It is you (police officer) that will determine when to use your weapon. If your attacker aims at your head, it is left to the officer to use his weapon or not. Individual police officers shall be held responsible for misuse of firearms.”

‎Earlier, Ewurum said all officers in the intelligent unit  ‎of NSCDC would e deplored for the exercise.

Participants at the event urged government agencies against partiality but to show high level of professionalism.

A former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mohammed Uwais, had at the opening ceremony of the conference regretted the the non-implementation of the report of the National Electoral Reform Committee, which he chaired, saying it would have long completely arrested the election crises in the country.