According to the Inspector General of police, Mr Solomon Arase,14,000 officers and men of the Nigeria Police will be deployed in Bayelsa State for the December 5 governorship election.
Arase made this known on Tuesday while briefing officers and men at the State Police Command in Yenagoa, the state capital of Bayelsa ahead of the poll.
He indicated the readiness of the police in providing adequate security, before, during and after the poll in which the IGP said,
“We are very ready for the Bayelsa election. We did a similar thing two weeks ago in Kogi State and we have decided to replicate it again here in Bayelsa.
“We are going to be deploying approximately 14,000 officers and men in all the eight local government areas. We are going to dominate the security space, we are going to have aerial surveillance.
“We are going to lock down the waterways. A DIG is supposed to come and supervise the election here with three additional commissioners and about 15 units of police mobile force. So, we are very ready.”
Based on the rumours that some parties planned to make use of fake policemen during the poll, the police IG explained that such plans would not work.
Arase stated that the police had a unique identity for each police and that would be deployed during the poll.
“The use of fake policemen will not be possible. This is because we have a unique identity for each policeman we are going to deploy for the election.
“So, anybody who has invested in trying to get uniforms or trying to get in fake policemen, I think that is a bad investment. It cannot work.”
He dismissed claim that policemen would be used to rig the poll, stressing that the police are apolitical and not related to any political party or neither would there be any tendencies for a political party to influence the police.
He added, “We are agents to enforce the law. We are not the one to conduct the election. The Independent National Electoral Commission is the one to conduct the election.
“The police job is very simple – to ensure that we put in place a robust security architecture that will enable people to move and vote fairly and freely in the election.
“So, I do not know about anybody influencing anybody, certainly not under my watch.
I came with the INEC chairman. We want to have an interractive session with stakeholders in the state to reassure them that we are prepared to conduct a free and fair election.
“I am also here to talk to my officers and men on what I expect them to do as law enforcement agents during the election.”
He warned the officers and men against involving themselves in unprofessional conduct that would drag the name of the Federal Government and that of the police in the mud.
