Ondo Election: IGP Hails Police Performance; promises to replicate feat in other elections.
Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, on Wednesday hailed the performance of Police personnel in ensuring a free, trouble free and fair conduct in the recently held Ondo State gubernatorial elections even as he insisted that the Force management team consider as topmost priority the welfare of its officers.
The IGP gave the commendation just as he promised that the election security template put in place for the Edo and Ondo elections which resulted in peaceful, trouble free conduct, will be replicated in other elections in the country.
According to a statement signed by Force Public Relations Officer, “The allowances of the force personnel who performed ad-hoc duties like election duties are treated with despatch. The recently concluded Ondo State gubernatorial election is not an exception.
Insisting that earlier reports in the media that Policemen went on protest over allowances after the Ondo election, was characterized by fallacy of generalization and inaccuracies, the statement said, “the Nigeria Police Force categorically states that the allowances for the officers and men of the force that participated in the security operations for the elections are being paid.
“The payments were done through the banks into the account numbers submitted by the personnel in compliance with the policy of the Federal Government on Treasury Single Account (TSA) to ensure transparency and accountability.”
“The election security template put in place by the police management in accordance with democratic policing has proven to be the panacea to hitherto elections in Nigeria which were fraught with violence and wanton destruction of lives and property.
He said, “The peaceful conduct of the Ondo election that has been adjudged free, fair and credible by all stakeholders, contrary to the wildly-held perception that it would be marred with large scale irregularities goes a long way to show that there is new progressive dawn in election security management in Nigeria.
“This paradigm shift has earned the police authorities a huge commendation from local and international observers and monitors.
“It would appear that this hard earned commendation of the police authority, which most Nigerians are desirous of being maintained in all subsequent elections did not go down well with some people who earn their living through being police critics and are bent on discrediting the electoral process by using unverified sweeping allegations as platform of misinformation and mischief.
“The Nigeria Police Force insists that upholding the integrity of the force and that of its officers is not to be compromised.
“The Nigeria Police management will continue to ensure that the principles of democratic policing remain the hallmark of all our operations” he added.
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