Mr Johnson Kokumo, the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of Osun governorship election, on Thursday said there would be no vehicular and human movements during the period of the state election on Saturday.
Kokumo made this known at the end of Police interactive session with ‘Accredited Election Observer Groups’, NGOs and the media, ahead of the Osun governorship election.
The DIG said though political players knew there was always restriction of movement during elections, it was pertinent to repeat and announce it so the general public would know it had been emplaced.
He said human and vehicular movements would be restriction as from 12 midnight (12.00a.m)of Saturday till 6.00 p.m of the same date (election day) but essential workers and accredited election observers and media would be allowed to operate.
Speaking earlier on the preparation of security agencies for the election, Kokumo said security agencies under the ‘inter-agency consultative committee on election security’ has met severally and worked out security arrangements for the election.
“I want to assure all and sundry that the police have the understanding, the cooperation and the collaboration of other security services.
“Specific duties had been rolled out for security agencies and the important thing is for us to achieve huge success at the polls.”
He said adequate security arrangements and deployments had been made for the state’s three senatorial districts, the 332 wards and the 3,763 polling units.
“In the course of our deployment, we have officers on the ground, air deployment with helicopters and have also deployed police marine on the waterways,” he said.
He said adequate patrol would be in place to mentain peace and that other security agencies would man security at the state borders to prevent influx of arms and armunition while the police would operate stop and search duties within the state.
He appealed to people of the state to cooperate with the police, play the game according to the rules and eschew bitterness and violence.
He asked parents to warn their children and wards to desist from all forms of violence and avoid all acts in violation of the 2022 Electoral Act.
He said the police were ready to arrest those who wanted to take laws into their hands or violate the electoral act.
On vote-buying, he said the police would leave no stone unturned to ensure that those involved in buying and selling of votes were brought to book.
“We will stop at nothing to fish them out wherever they are. We will arrest them and process them through the court.
“Vote buying and selling is an electoral offence.” he said
He, however, appealed to the public to give the police credible information that would lead to the arrest of culprits, adding the appeal became necessary as vote buying and selling transaction were carried out in secrecy.
He said the people should call the police on the election dedicated phone lines: 08039537995 , 08123823981, 08075872433, 08067788119, when the incident of vote buying and selling and other electoral offences were noticed.(NAN)
