ELECTION SECURITY: Police conduct in Ekiti good test-run for 2023 general elections, says PSC, as officers performance rated satisfactory
By KEMI KASUMU
The Ekiti State Governorship Election held Saturday, June 18, 2022 has been described as largely peaceful and orderly, according to the Police Service Commission (PSC).
In a statement issued and dated Sunday June 19, 2022 by Ikechukwu Ani, Head, Press and Public Relations of the PSC and copy of which was sent to The DEFENDER, the Nigeria Police Force, the lead agency, was said to have worked in collaboration with other sister agencies, such as the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Department of State Services (DSS), Federal Road Safety Commission, among others and their performance was described as professional and their conduct satisfactory.
The Police Service Commission, Ani said, monitored the conduct of the Police in the 16 Local Government Areas of the state where the Commission’s Monitors confirmed that the Police teams arrived the Polling Units on time and that they were civil and courteous in their conduct.
“Deputy Inspector General of Police, Johnson Kokumo led the Security team for the election and ensured that deployments were timely and well organized.
“The Police also promptly intervened in some reported cases of vote buying and crowd misbehaviour and showed adequate presence in most of the polling Units.
“There was an average of two to five Police Officers in most of the polling Units visited by the Commission’s Monitors.
“The Commission sees the conduct of the Police in the Ekiti Governorship election as a huge improvement and a good test-run for the 2023 General elections.
“There was massive deployment of Police Officers from different Commands and formations of the Force and this gave the voters a sense of security,” the statement said.