Governorship/State Assembly Polls: Umahi charge Police to Redouble efforts, transparency

Gracia Simeon -Abakaliki

few hours to the governorship and State House of Assembly election in Ebonyi State, Governor David Umahi has appealled to the Security agencies to redouble their efforts professionally.

Umahi gave the charge during a Security meeting in his Office, Ochoudo Centenary City, Abakaliki, Friday, where he called on voters to come out enmass and vote for their preferred candidate assuring them of their safety in the process.

He then warned political actors against acts capable of undermining the transparency of the election, insisting that there would be no sacred cows.

“Let me first commend the security Chiefs. You are aware that I expressed dissatisfaction with the previous conduct but after empirical analysis of the happenings, we discovered that it was not actually a security lapse.

“I want to thank the security Agencies very highly and to express confidence in them. Let me appeal to all political parties and Candidates to ensure that there is no breakdown of law and order tomorrow.

“I want to say that the election of 25th February remains the best election in the history of this Country, I think that INEC has done a very wonderful job.”

Governor Umahi ordered Security Agencies to restrict movement of all persons not directly involved in election duties in order to check influx of miscreants.

“The position of IG is that movement is restricted and I insist as the Chief Security Officer that no man, woman, big man or small should move from one polling unit to the other; if we catch you, you must be prosecuted.

“Please vote and go home and be peaceful so that we can have a peaceful State, power belongs to God.

“We have noted some alleged INEC officers going up and down and claiming that they can byepass BVAS, don’t mind them, nobody should be helped.”

He urged Security Agencies to evolve ways of checkmating proliferation of fake observers during the election.

“Every observer that is accredited by INEC will need to also be accredited by the CP.

“We are requesting Ebonyians to please come out even more than they did during the first election as the Security Agencies have put modalities in place to ensure peaceful election, please allow the election to hold.”