Over 22,000 Federal Republic of Nigeria police are being deployed to Delta State ahead of the re-run of a governor's race. President Goodluck Jonathan is scheduled to visit the area ahead of the Jan. 6, 2011 vote.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Jan 4, 2011
By Emma Amaize, Kingsley Omonobi & Austin Ogwuda
Nigeria Vanguard
ASABA—AHEAD of the Delta State governorship election re_run on Thursday, the Police High Command in Abuja has ordered the deployment of 22, 400 Police officers in the state even as President Goodluck Jonathan arrives the oil city of Warri, today, to address a rally which Delta State Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chief Paulinus Akpeki has described as “Mother of all rallies,” in support of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan.
Police sources told Vanguard in Abuja that the deployment of the officers to be made up of Mobile Police squadrons, bomb disposal units, anti-terrorists units, specially trained police dogs unit will be completed by Thursday.
As a result of the directive, policemen stationed in Delta State, are expected to be complemented by reinforcements from neighbouring states like Edo, Anambra and Kogi states.
Already, the Deputy Inspector General in charge of Operations at the force headquarters, DIG Abubakar Audu, has relocated to Asaba to coordinate security operations during the elections.
Vanguard gathered that the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Abubakar Ringim, is keen to use the Delta State elections as a test case to show police capability towards ensuring free and fair general elections in April.
Political party officials
In a bid to ensure a free and fair re-run election, Delta State Resident Electoral Commissioner, INEC, Dr. Gabriel Ada, yesterday, held a meeting with the governorship candidates with their political party officials where he made it mandatory that all the candidates must sign undertaking with the police to be of good conduct.
The undertaking, according to him, would be signed in the presence of the Deputy Inspector General of Police, DIG, in charge of Operations, Mr. Audu Abubakar who is already in Asaba.
Ada who read out the riot act made it clear that INEC would not leave any stone unturned to ensure hitch free rerun, and advised the candidates to admonish their supporters to remain peaceful.
He warned that any attempt to breed violence or disrupt the exercise would be met with stiff penalty, noting that there would be heavy security presence “and you will start seeing them as from tomorrow even as from today if they have not arrived.”
The INEC boss at that meeting handed over the soft (diskettes) copies of voters’ registers to the parties.
DIG Abubakar arrived Asaba, yesterday, afternoon and was expected to address the men of Delta police command as at the time of this report while four Resident Electoral Commissioners have also been deployed to the state for the exercise.
Meanwhile, a group known as ‘The Independent Election Monitoring Group, IEMG, also while briefing the press said “the Group decided to monitor the Delta gubernatorial re_run elections in preparation for the 2011 elections and to test run some of its preparations and assumptions for the 2011 elections.”
Coordinator of the Group, Mr. Festus Okoye said: “It also decided to monitor the process to gather information, data and make projections that will guide INEC and the Nigerian people to make informed and rational decisions that will assist in restoring credibility to the electoral process.”
Jonathan changes political rhythm
The tempo of politics in Delta State has changed, in the last 48 hours, especially for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, following reports that President Goodluck Jonathan would be flying in from Abuja to drum up support, today, in the oil city of Warri for the former Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, the party’s gubernatorial candidate in Thursday’s re-run.
Party stalwarts started trooping into Warri and neighbouring Effurun, yesterday afternoon, for the rally, where President Jonathan is expected to publicly announce Dr. Uduaghan as his choice, contrary to the rumour that he was supporting the candidate of another party. Hotels in Warri and Effurun were said to fully booked, last night.
National chairman of the party, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo, and other top party leaders, including PDP governors in the South_South states are expected to attend the rally, scheduled to hold at the Warri Township Stadium, which is wearing a new look for the momentous event. Also, security arrangements in Warri have been beefed up with more soldiers and policemen deployed to ensure a hitch-free visit.
Delta State Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chief Paulinus Akpeki who confirmed to Vanguard that the calculations of the opposition elements in the state against Uduaghan had been defeated, said: “The visit of Mr. President and the high-powered leadership to Warri to address the ‘mother of all rallies’ in support of Uduaghan’s candidature in the re_run election is a positive re-affirmation of the support of the party’s hierarchy has for Uduaghan.
“The significance of the visit is that it will send a clear and unambiguous signal to the whole world that there is a robust and untainted relationship between the President and Dr. Uduaghan, and that indeed, Mr. President wants him, Dr. Uduaghan to be re-elected to continue his good works of fast_tracking the socio-economic transformation of Delta State.”
No comments:
Post a Comment