2019 elections: Play by rules, IG charges FCT police

The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, has charged officers and men of the FCT police command to play by the rules during their deployment for the general elections in the capital city.

Idris made the charge yesterday while declaring open a 2-day “Capacity Building Training for Officers and Men of FCT Police Command on Elections Security Management” organised by the command in collaboration with Hi-Tech Security Services and Training Ltd.

Represented by DIG Sani Mohammed, DIG in charge of Training, Idris said with new technological inventions, police work was changing.

He added that these days everyone knew their rights and as such “there is no way you can change the rules in the middle of the game. Therefore, you are expected to be firm, fair and upright.”

Also speaking, the FCT Commissioner of Police, Bala Ciroma, said the participants at the training were expected to share the information they gathered with their subordinates in their respective divisions and offices.

The CP, who harped on the need for collaborative efforts with other security agencies, said this would make policing of the election to be better and more effective.

On his part, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja, Alhaji Yahaya Bello urged residents of the capital city to come and collect their Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC), noting that over 180,000 newly produced PVCs have been received in the past two weeks.

He said INEC was also going to organize a capacity building training for security personnel to compliment what the FCT police command was doing because INEC realized that the roles of the security agencies in ensuring a credible election could not be over-emphasized.