Ondo Poll’ll Be One Of Nigeria’s Best Elections, Police Boast

…Claims Politicians Not Planning Violence

The Ondo State Police Command has expressed optimism that the governorship election scheduled for October 10th will be one of the country’s best elections.

Spokesman of the command, Tee Leo Ikoro, stated this in an interview with THE WHISTLER on Friday.

Ikoro spoke against the backdrop of reports and apprehension that politicians were stockpiling arms and planning violence to disrupt the election.

Recall that one of the prominent election observer groups, YIAGA Africa, had on Thursday raised the alarm that politicians in the state had stockpiled arms which might lead to pre-election violence and low voter turnout.

According to YIAGA Africa, the plan may be to instigate violence so that the parties may use it to cause low voter turnout.

The envisaged low turnout will now be used by political parties to manipulate the election, especially in rural areas on the day, it has been speculated.

But the police spokesman said the command was fully prepared for the poll, as it had deployed its men in all the flashpoints that needed such security presence.

He also called on the people not to entertain fear as the command had enough personnel and logistics to cover the election, both on the land and in the riverine areas.

He said: “We have done all that needs to be done and we’re totally prepared for the election. We’ve deployed our men to all the points that we need to deploy them to and we’re calling on people not to entertain any fear because we have enough personnel and logistics to cover the election, both on the land and on sea because the state is divided into two dichotomy. We have off-land and riverine.

“We have enough marine police officers and logistics and then we have assistance from the navy.
It’s going to be one of the best elections we’ve ever had in the country because we have enough manpower, enough logistics and then enough intel to go round.”

He debunked reports that politicians were planning violence, saying:

“Nobody is planning any violence. Already people have this agitation that once there is election there will always be violence and you can imagine where you have about 33,000 police officers excluding other agencies that are giving just as much as we’re also giving, do you think any one single person or just a group or groups will come out openly and challenge that kind of active force?

“There is nothing like violence because even while they(politicians) were doing their campaigns, the few cases that we were able to track, we arrested and those people are going to be prosecuted. So no one should think that, because we’re effectively on ground.”

The Ondo governorship election is a straight battle between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The candidate of the APC is the incumbent Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, while that of the PDP is Eyitayo Jegede.

Recently, during a campaign in the state, supporters of the two candidates had clashed, throwing accusations at each other for the incident.