Nigerian security chiefs Tuesday said they are prepared for Saturday’s governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections.
The officials gave the assurance after they held a closed-door meeting with President Muhammdu Buhari in his office at the Presidential Villa.
The meeting lasted for about two hours. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is set to conduct the governorship election in 29 states on Saturday.
Briefing State House correspondents on the outcome of the meeting, acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, said all security outfits have assured that they are ready for the polls.
“We are all aware of the fact that we just concluded the presidential and National Assembly elections and we want to congratulate Nigerians for the peaceful conduct of the elections, and we are prepared now for the governorship and the House of Assembly elections in the country.
“We will like every Nigerian to come out and cast his or her vote. The security arrangement we provided during the presidential elections is being enhanced to provide an enabling environment for everybody to come out and cast his or her vote for their preferred candidates,” Mr Adamu said.
There was widespread violence during the last elections across the country. The IGP stated the resolve of security agencies to curb it.
Mr Adamu said: “We will again advise those that will want to disrupt the process to have a rethink because during the presidential election, we had some few challenges here and there, we will not allow those challenges to be repeated. We are taking more security measures to address those pockets of challenges we noticed”.
Before the presidential election, President Buhari had said that he gave security agencies a directive to deal with ballot box snatchers.
The IG Tuesday said incidents of thuggery and ballot snatching remains a serious crime, adding, “we, the security personnel have resolved to deal ruthlessly with anybody that attempts to disrupt the process of this election”.
He called on all involved in the election process to abide by the rules.
“We expect that the INEC officials would do their work without fear or favour and without being allowed to compromise.”
The IG said the Police had made some arrests following the violence that characterised the last elections. He said all those arrested would be arraigned before the law courts as soon as investigations are completed. He also said the Police would soon release the number of persons arrested nationwide.
