Less than than 24 hours to the governorship election in Osun State, the newly deployed police commissioner in charge of the Saturday’s polls, Augustine Evbakhabokun, has withdrawn all policemen guarding politicians in Osun, he said at a press conference on Friday evening.
Evbakhabokun warned that any politician who goes out with policemen on election day or who travels across the state to monitor the election will be locked up. The police boss, who was deployed to Osun only three days ago, confirmed that some officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, were arrested by the police on Thursday with election materials but said they were mistakenly arrested.
He said the INEC officials had missed their way and were erroneously detained by the police. He first denied that the incident ever happened but only provided details when he was pressed by journalists.
He could not however explain why the INEC vehicle remained parked at the state CID with election materials in it. He said the incident had been resolved.
He said the police were “fully mobilised” and have been deployed to the three senatorial districts in Osun State. He however failed to disclose the number of policemen in the state, claiming that it was for security reasons.
A newspaper had reported on Friday that there were over 65,000 security operatives deployed to Osun for the one day exercise. The police boss warned all troublemakers, and his men will not “beg issues” but “force issues”. He said the police are apolitical and only would like to see a free and fair election. He warned those who have nothing to do at polling units to stay home. He said voters should stay 300 metres until the exercise is completed.
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