6,000 security personnel ready for election in Zamfara — Police

The Zamfara Police Command and other security agencies in the state have deployed 6,062 security personnel ahead of Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections in the state.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, SP Muhammad Shehu, disclosed this in a statement in Gusau on Thursday.

Shehu said, “the deployment is part of the police and sister security agencies commitments to ensure peaceful conduct of the 2019 general elections in the state.”

“Out of the 6,062 deployed security personnel, police have 4,391 officers while other sister security agencies deployed 1,671 personnel to ensure free, fair and credible elections in the state.”

He said all the 2,516 polling units across the 147 wards of the 14 local government areas of the state would be effectively covered by the security personnel.

He, however, said that the command made adequate security arrangements to ensure effective protection of all election centres, materials, personnel and monitoring teams/observers deployed to the state.

“The command has also made adequate provision for confidence building patrols on the major highways and flashpoints to ensure overall protection of lives and properties before, during and after the polls.”

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“All the police personnel and other sister security agencies deployed for the assignment were properly trained and briefed to acquaint themselves with the rules of engagement of the polls.”

“The Command under the Commissioner Celestine Okoye enjoins political actors and their supporters in the state to play the game by the rules for the peaceful conduct of the elections,” he added.

He urged members of the public to be law abiding and cooperate with the security authorities by giving timely and credible information on activities of disgruntled elements.

“The command appeals to the media to continue to collaborate with security agencies by informing members of the public verified and authentic happenings regarding the conduct of the elections.”

“We wish the general public a peaceful and successful conduct of 2019 general elections in Zamfara state and Nigeria as a whole,” he said.