Police to deploy 780 officers for Agwara rerun election

The Niger state command of the Nigeria Police yesterday disclosed that it will deploy 780 of its officers and men for the rerun election at Agwara state constituency in Agwara local government area of the state coming up on Saturday.

This was disclosed at a meeting by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with heads of the security agencies in the state.

Speaking during the meeting, the representative of the police command, ACP Charles Dike, said each polling unit would have at least six policemen adding that officers have been deployed ahead of the election for intelligence gathering.

Dike added that the police officers for the election would be at the local government by Friday because of the difficult terrain of the area.

Earlier, the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Professor Samuel Egwu, reiterated that only 13 political parties would be participating in the election excluding the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Egwu said he did not envisage any major security challenge during the exercise but added that there was the need to plan for the unknown.

“The Commission relies and will leverage on the constitutional responsibility of the security agencies to support us. I appreciate security agencies for the support being given to INEC.”

The election followed the sacking of the incumbent APC legislator by the election tribunal whose judgment was upheld by the appeals court.