Police, IPAC meet on peaceful elections in Bayelsa

The Bayelsa State Police Command has met with the leadership of the various political parties in the state under the aegis of Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC) on the need for peaceful and violence-free local government and governorship elections.

Bayelsa State is expected to hold local government elections on August 10 at the end of a month- long campaigns that started on July 8 and expected to end on August 8, two days to the elections.

Thereafter, the state would also hold gubernatorial primary elections before the governorship elections on November 16 this year and the police hierarchy urged peaceful polls.

Commissioner of Police, Uche John Anozia told party

chairmen at the Police Officers Mess in Yenagoa on Friday that as the current police boss, he would not want to record any violence in the forthcoming elections.

Anozia regretted that he is not impressed with the activities of hoodlums in the state saying that politicians use the youths for criminal activities and warned that he will not tolerate lawlessness during the elections as law would take its full course.

According to him, elections in the state are characterised by bickering, interparty issues and thuggery and stated that the meeting was to inform them on what they are expected to do and what they are not expected to do during the elections.

He stressed that when laws are obeyed, there is peace and that lawlessness always leads to chaos pointing out that “if you want to use youths to assist you, they should assist you lawfully.”

Anozia urged the party leaders to have confidence in the police assuring that they would provide security as the elections are going on and that he was free to talk to them 24 hours daily.

Various political leaders queried the absence of the two key political parties at the meeting while noting ways in which the police could improve their performance during the forthcoming elections and how to protect lives and property in the state.

They also condemned the inability of the police to withdraw their officers attached to top political figures while also stating that the frequent transfer of police commissioners to the state did not augur well in the fight against insecurity in the state.