Bayelsa, Kogi Elections: IGP Identifies Policemen Who Disrupted The Electoral Process

Muhammed Adamu, the Inspector-General of Police, while speaking on the Bayelsa and Kogi State elections has identified the policemen who disrupted the electoral process.

The IGP who spoke after President Muhammadu Buhari’s meeting with security heads stated that those caught on videos making round were fake officers.

Adamu further stated that all security personnel who worked during the November 16 elections were given special tags.

He further stated that anyone without the tags was on illegal assignments.

“Before the elections, there was threats assessment of the two states and we realised that there was going to be violence in two states”.

“Because, during the campaigns, we saw how the opponents were fighting themselves, so we prepared so much for that. During one of the stakeholders meeting, I went to Kogi with the chairman of INEC and I also went to Bayelsa.”

“Even at the point of signing the peace accord to conduct the election without any problems, after signing a peace accord in Kogi, within the hall, there was a problem by the parties.”

The IGP noted that the police force was aware that the electoral process was not going to be easy and so they had prepared heavily for the elections.

He stated that they were aware that some politicians in the state were going to sew police and military uniforms, which made them give them tags.

On why the Police allowed violence during the elections even with security reports before the exercise, he said: “You see, it depends on the way you choose to interpret.”

“We did our assessment, we knew these things will happen but what we needed to do was plan to prevent it, or if it happens, to arrest. That explains why the number of policemen we sent to those states were so massive.”

“Now, when you get the information and you did your assessment and you did your plan, the bad guys are also planning, and the people we are dealing with here are politicians. So, for us to be able to distinguish the bad from the good, one of the strategies was to create a situation that will enable us to identify the good ones, genuine personnel.”

“Then anyone without identification tag, is a bad guy and then we pick him. They came out as they planned but then, we made some arrests on the spot where we saw them, those that escaped through information and intelligence we also picked them.”