Ekiti state Police Command has said it will deal ruthlessly with any politician who causes any crisis ahead of the governorship election next year.
The Commissioner of Police, Abdullahi Chafe, while briefing journalists yesterday at the Command’s headquarters in Ado-Ekiti, said the police would not tolerate “hooliganism and thuggery in the name of politics.”
He said the force would be apolitical and fair to all political parties but will be firm in its dealings.
He commended the state government and the public for supplying the police with information that has aided its fight against crime.
He said: “They (politicians) should see the coming election as more of a game than a war. They shouldn’t kill or maim all because they want to win election; we are not going to tolerate these.
“Let me state clearly that our work is statutorily to protect the lives of all Nigerians, so we are going to be fair to all politicians. Whatever we do for any politician in party A shall be replicated for others. We are not going to take sides, because the police as far as I know are not supposed to be political.”
Over 50 aspirants are believed to be jostling for the governorship seat in the state ahead of the polls.
The aspirants, majorly from the two major political parties in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) were already making deft political moves to clinch the coveted position.
The state governor, Ayodele Fayose, also upped the ante politically, recently when he said nothing barred him constitutionally from contesting the election.
Fayose, a fierce critic of the APC-led federal government, in May said he would vie for the position in 2018 so that he can ‘serve his term which was truncated through an illegal impeachment in 2006.’
The Supreme Court in 2014 had nullified Fayose’s impeachment from the office about seven months to the end of his first term.
