The Lagos State Police Command has explained why it deployed 1,000 of its officers to Edo State ahead of Saturday’s governorship election.
DAILY POST reports that the command, on Sunday, said it has deployed 1,000 officers to Edo for the September 19 gubernatorial election.
Meanwhile, Nigerians have been expressing concerns on why such a large number of officers were deployed to Edo from Lagos.
But, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, said the command acted based on the instruction from the force headquarters in Abuja.
Speaking in a telephone interview on Sweet FM Abeokuta on Monday, Adejobi said:
“I wouldn’t know why people are raising issues about that action of the police. We all know that whenever we have special elections like that of Edo, the Inspector-General of Police will always mop-up men from neighbouring states.
“The 1,000 men sent to Edo are part of the mop-up for this special duty in Edo State. We are part of the men the IG has deployed to make sure we have free fair and credible election in Edo state.
“So, in Lagos, we just deployed the number in accordance with the directive of the Inspector General of Police from the Force headquarters.”
Adejobi spoke further that, “there’s nothing special about it, it is a normal thing. When we have elections like this, we always select police here and there. We want to maintain our standard that we have just done what the force headquarters has asked us to do.”
Adejobi disclosed that the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, warned the 1,000 police officers to shun any practice “that could dent the image of the police or truncate our democratic values in this country.”
“So, the message is well prepared and that is what we have just done, nothing more,” Adejobi stressed.
