By Joseph Edegbo:
Reviewing strategies at the recent Presidential polls, Kaduna Police Command says it has strengthened its operations in collaboration with the Nigerian Air Force to deploy helicopters in Saturday’s Gubernatorial and State Assembly Elections in the State.
Just as it prohibits the operation of the State owned Vigilante group, the Command also banned food vendors around Polling units as well as any person without PVC.
The Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Abdulrahman announced this on Friday at a news briefing along with the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Abdullahi Adamu Kaugama and other security Chiefs on their state of preparedness for Saturday’s election.
Describing the Vigilantes as very deadly, the Police Commissioner said some of them were disarmed on Thursday by the Police haven caught carrying dangerous weapons.
Abdulrahman said he was also forced to invite some Clerics to a meeting following reports that they were going to tilt towards a particular Political party in their sermons in mosques and churches which could likely trigger violence.
As religious leaders, he said, they were expected to preach inclusiveness and not exclusiveness to heighten the Polity in the State.
Meanwhile, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner has warned that no voting would be allowed at any Polling Unit without the use of Card Readers.
Abdullahi Kaugama said in the absence of Card Readers, either by malfunctioning or otherwise, election at that polling unit would be postponed
He admitted that some communities rejected the use of card readers during the recent Elections pointing out that this time around such attitude would not be tolerated.
Kaugama disclosed that a total of 8,012 Card Readers with back up, have been deployed for the elections.
“All the lapses noted from the last Presidential and National Assembly Elections have been corrected,” he assured.
He announced that 38 Gubernatorial and 398 House of Assembly candidates are contesting in the elections which would be conducted by about 34,000 ad-hoc staff.
Of the number, 10,000 are youth Corps members, while the rest are drawn from universities.
The REC appealed to the people and contestants to cooperate with the INEC Officials for free and credible Elections.
