Inspector General of Police (IGP) Usman Alkali Baba has assured President Muhammadu Buhari of effective policing to ensure free, fair and credible elections in 2023.
Baba gave this assurance on Thursday at an emergency meeting with commissioners of police and other top police officers at the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
The emergency meeting became necessary following incessant attacks on INEC facilities in some parts of the country.
He also warned criminals attacking Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) offices and other facilities that the police and other security agencies would not tolerate such barbaric acts.
In his words, “The Nigeria Police has the requisite human capacity, in terms of experience, strength of character, and professionalism, to surmount the current and evolving challenges ahead of the general election.
“The meeting is being convened to evaluate our performance in the outgoing year, dissect operational challenges in relation to our policing mandate, review and perfect our election security governance plans, ahead of the 2023 general election, and collectively set our policing goals as we usher in Year 2023.
“The outgoing year presented some sets of security challenges which, at some point, evolved to threaten the security order and national cohesion of the country.
“I therefore, encourage you not to let the Force leadership and the nation down in relation to the charge by Mr. President that we do everything possible to bequeath to the nation a peaceful, fair, secure, and credible general election in 2023.
“I assure Mr. President that the Force will not let him down in the dream legacy of deepening democracy, nor will we let the nation down in the quest for a peaceful and security internal security space.
“We have put measures in place to prevent future occurrences, apprehend the culprits, and bring the culprits to book.
“We have also deployed personnel to deter the attacks. We have stepped up intelligence gathering, we have discovered that the criminal elements were using petrol bombs, dynamite and gunfire at a distance to carry out their dastardly acts. But there will be no hiding place for them.”
