Guber Polls: AIG,3 Police Commissioners Deployed To Benue.

Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba has deployed one Assistant Inspector General (AIG) and three commissioners of police to Benue to cover today’s governorship and state assembly elections in the State.

Recall that the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega on Thursday in Makurdi ranked Benue State highest in incidences of electoral violence in the just concluded March 28 elections across the country.

This is just as the Military comprising of Army, Navy and Airforce as well as other security agencies in the state have also been assigned to mount surveillance around the state during the exercise.

Governor Gabriel Suswam who disclosed this while briefing newsmen yesterday after a security meeting held at the Government House in Makurdi, said the senior police officers were sent from Abuja for the purpose of the election.

While noting that their deployment to the state was as a result of speculations making the round about the possible breakdown of law and order in the state, Suswam revealed that each of the police commissioners would take charge of a senatorial district while the AIG is to oversee the entire security operations for as long as the exercise will last in the state.

The Governor posited that the decision was taken in the best interest of residents in the state to forestall possible outbreak of violence trouble during the elections even as he appealed to parties involved in the election to see the exercise as a game.

Suswam who urged people of the state to remain calm and go out to vote for candidates of their choice assured that everything that needed to be put in place have already been done by the state government to ensure a free, fair and credible election devoid of violence.

Commenting, the Police commissioner in charge of Benue North West (zone B), Jimoh Ozi Obeh maintained that the idea of each CP being in control of a senatorial district was meant to avert a reoccurrence of violence in some parts of the state during the March 28 poll.

He however warned people to adhere strictly to restriction of movement stressing that no candidate should move around outside their polling unit just as he assured the electorates of safety of lives and property.

Source Rose Ejembi