The Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, NSCDC, has trained and will deploy 13,311 personnel for the Edo governorship election.
The training is on the new electoral guidelines in COVID-19 period in order to ensure that every act of electoral malpractices, violence, act of hooliganism and other social vices that could affect the smooth conduct of the elections are being nipped in the bud.
The Commandant General, Abdullahi Muhammadu, disclosed this while briefing participants, representative of INEC and the representative of the National Council for Disease Control, NCDC, at the Corps Headquarters Abuja on Wednesday.
A statement by the spokesperson of the Corps, DCC Emmanuel Okeh made available to Ashenewsonline on Wednesday, “the Corps is deploying 13,311 personnel drawn from the Headquarters and neighbouring state such as Kogi, Anambra, Bayelsa, Delta and Ondo to complement the personnel of Edo state Command and Zonal Command in Benin.”
It said that the Corps as a critical stakeholder in election monitoring, is ensuring that personnel are properly guided before fully deployed for any election for the provision of physical security at the polling booths, polling units, protection of the ballot boxes as well as electoral officers.
According to Gana, the Corps has critical function to perform before, during and after election by educating and enlightening the populace, the political actors and political gladiators to employ peaceful approach of conducting the electoral processes without rancour.
Gana added that Corps deployed the Deputy Commandant General in charge of Operations, Hillary Madu along with three Assistant Commandant Generals, seven Commandants, to serve as field coordinating officers in charge of the three senatorial districts.
“Also, 60 sniffer dogs are being deployed to INEC office for crowd control and detection of combustive elements as well as IEDs, other specialized unit deployed are mobile surveillance vehicles, the special weapon and tactical unit (SWAT), the Chemical radioactive biological and neutral unit (CBRN) Counter Terrorism, Operations and Special Duties, Intelligence department, Medical and Disaster Management among others.
“Apart from the election duty, there is need to beef up security around Infrastructure and National Assets from being soft target of attacks by hoodlums and vandals who unduly take advantage of election periods to carry out their nefarious and dastardly act as well as identified black spots and other areas prone to attack and vandalism,” the statement reads.
The CG assured the personnel of adequate provision of logistics for the operation and also cautioned that they should work in harmony with other sister agencies without conflict as the Corps will not tolerate any act of misconduct during the operations.
He warned the personnel to deal with the populace with high level of civility and diplomacy to protect the name and integrity of the Corps. The politicians, he advised that leadership is not a do or die affair but service to humanity and to the electorate they should turn out en-masse to vote for the leaders of their choice, eschew violence and allow peace to reign because anyone caught will face the wrath of the law as Edo is their only state and they do not have any other state to claim, therefore they should not mortgage their conscience.
Gana guaranty free and fair election in Edo by working in collaboration and synergy with other sister agency.
