Bayelsa/Kogi polls: How politicians sewed uniforms for fake policemen - IG

The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, said on Monday politicians and other actors made plans to counter security arrangements for Saturday’s governorship poll in Bayelsa and Kogi states.

He said part of the counter plans was to sew uniforms for persons that posed as policemen and security officials.



Adamu, who spoke with State House Correspondents after President Muhammadu Buhari and the service chiefs held a meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said the police and other security officers deployed for the elections carried “special identification tags.”

But, he admitted that while the police did their arrangements, politicians and persons the IG called the “bad guys”, also made counter plans to cause problems in some isolated areas in Kogi and Bayelsa states.

He stated that any policeman seen disrupting the polls in the two states was not genuine if he had no identification card issued by the police authorities.

He said, “We were aware of the fact that or we were told that some politicians were going to sew police and military uniforms. So, we devised some other means of identifying those that were on elections duty. We gave them tags.”

When reminded that in Kogi, a police helicopter was allegedly seen dispersing voters in opposition strongholds, the IG replied that the helicopter was deployed to stop violence.

On the security meeting with Buhari, the IG said it was to review the security situation of the country.

He said the session came to the conclusion that kidnapping, banditry and insurgency had dropped remarkably.