IGP Vows Police Will Surmount Security Challenges in Southeast Ahead of 2023 Polls
The Inspector-General of Police, Mr Usman Baba, has assured the residents of Southeast that the police will surmount the current security challenges ahead of the 2023 election.
IGP Baba, represented by an Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Mr Isaac Akinmoyede, gave the assurance during the opening ceremony of the “Southeast 2023 Elections Security Management Workshop” on Saturday in Enugu.
He said that the police was building a robust synergy with other sister security organisations and formations to ensure that the 2023 election remained seamless and very peaceful.
According to him, the force was brainstorming together to fashion out ways to deal with existing and emerging security threats head- long within the Southeast.
“It is clear that with robust synergy, cooperation and joint operations this region will be the most peaceful and our people will surely come out to exercise their civic responsibility.
“We are working relentlessly on the goal of ensuring that election holds in the South-East and people’s vote are secured and it will definitely count,” the IGP assured.
Addressing officers of Enugu Police Command and other participants including Men of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, the Media among others, the Training Consultant, who is a former Inspector General Of Police, Solomon Arase, enjoined the participants to feel free, interact with one other for exchange of ideas, gain knowledge, so that at the end of the programme, they would cascade it down to other security personnel in their various formations.
Arase said, five key outcomes were expected after the training namely; robust inter-agency collaboration towards effective security governance during the 2023 General Elections and in other future joint electoral security operations; enhanced knowledge of security agents on election security management, drawing on global best practices; Development of an ‘Election Security Management Protocol’ that will act as the standard security management template for future elections at all levels in Nigeria.
“It is anticipated that the document will act as a credible reference document for all security agencies and other strategic stakeholders within the electoral system in Nigeria; Appreciation of peculiar election security threats and specific approaches towards managing them at various stages of the electoral process and Knowledge of current pattern and trend of crimes and internal security threats, and pathways to mitigating them and stabilising the security order ahead of the 2023 General Elections.
“The training forms part of the IG’s reform and upgrades agenda to strengthen and build the capacity of the Police, particularly as the country heads into an important election year during which incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari will hand over power to a newly-elected leader following his completion of the constitutionally-permitted eight-year double terms.
, “it is timely and apt, as it will provide opportunities for security agencies brainstorm and chat a new way forward to ensure credible elections in the state and the country as a whole.”
Enugu State governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Agriculture, Mike Ogbuekwe, thanked the IGP Alkali for such initiative, which will go along way in conducting peaceful, free and fair elections in Nigeria come 2023 and beyond.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Sam Udekwe is a journalist working in the News and Current Affairs department, Enugu State Broadcasting Service (ESBS) Enugu. He is well trained in all genres of journalistic venture.
Mr Sam read Mass Communication, graduating all with Distinction in National Diploma, Higher National Diploma and Postgraduate Diploma at IMT, Enugu and Madonna University, Okija, Anambra state, while he is presently on his M.Sc programme also in Mass Communication, at National Open University of Nigeria.
He is currently the NUJ Chairman, Enugu state.
samowailo@gmail.com
