2023 Elections Will Hold in South-East – IG

The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Usman Baba, has assured residents of South-East that elections will hold in the zone during the 2023 polls.

Baba, represented by an Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Isaac Akinmoyede, gave the assurance, yesterday, in Enugu, during the opening ceremony of the ‘South-East 2023 Elections Security Management Workshop’.

He disclosed that the Police was building a robust synergy with other sister security organisations and formations to ensure that the 2023 elections is seamless and very peaceful.

He said: “We are brainstorming to fashion out ways to deal with existing and emerging security threats headlong within the South-East.

“It is clear that with robust synergy, cooperation and joint operations, this area 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, people’s vote are secured and count.”

Earlier, a retired IGP, Dr Solomon Arase, said that the workshop was meant for all security agencies and formations in South-East to get them ready for the task of a peaceful, credible and hitch-free election in 2023.

Arase was optimistic that the workshop would help to identify previous security gaps during election as well as pinpoint task and responsibility of each security agency during election.

Speaking, Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abubakar Lawal, urged the people of the zone and the state not to express any fear about the 2023 election.

“2023 Election will hold and we are doing everything humanly possible to ensure that. Our people should not entertain any fear or opinion in the contrary,” Lawal stated.

The workshop was attended by personnel of the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Air Force, Nigerian Navy, Nigeria Police, Department of State Security and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.

Other were the Nigeria Correctional Service, Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Custom Service, Federal and State Fire Services as well as National Drug Law Enforcement Agency among others.