Deputy Commandant General (DCG) in charge of Operations, DCG Dauda Danladi Mungadi, joined his counterpart in the Nigeria Police Force, Deputy Inspector General of Police, DIG Habu Sani in company of paramilitary Service Commanders in Kogi State to monitor the state gubernatorial election held on 11th November, 2023.
Among the Service Commanders were the Controller of Correctional Service, Comptroller Nigeria Immigration Service, State Director, Department of State Services, Sector Commander Federal Road Safety Corps, Commander National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Federal Fire Service and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission who were joined by the Resident electoral Commissioner Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to monitor Gubernatorial election in Kogi State.
Being the lead agency in election duties, all the paramilitary security agencies took off from the Kogi State Police Command Headquarters, Lokoja where all meetings on the election were held in a motorcade and visited the Polling Unit 069, located near the National Youth Council of Nigeria’s Secretariat, Polling Unit 010 Post Office, and Polling Units located at UBE Primary School near Kogi State Polytechnic and from there terminated at 009 Polling Units and 057 all located at LGEA Primary School, Ganaja in Ajaokuta, Local Government Area.
While on an independent Monitoring exercise shortly before joining the convoy of the DIG, the NSCDC Spokesman, CSC Babawale Zaid Afolabi, who was lead by ACG Stella Oladeye, had granted an interview on the Channels Television which he assured the public of adequate security arrangement made by the Corps in synergy with other sister agencies.
He revealed that Commandant General of NSCDC, Dr Ahmed Abubakar Audi had earlier directed the mobilisation of personnel from five neighbouring states: Benue, Niger, Kwara, Nasarawa, FCT Commands and National Headquarters to ensure mass mobilisation and deployment to Kogi in order to beef up security for a seamless exercise.
At the time of filing this report, the Corps had not received information of any incident of breach of peace from any location.
It was observed that in some places visited, voter turnout was quite impressive as electorate came out in their numbers to exercise their franchise especially as security agencies adequately ensured adequate deployment to pave the way for a hitch-free election.