2019: Imo Police advise against violence

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Imo State Command, Superintendent Orlando Ikokwu has advised Nigerian youth against electoral violence as the 2019 elections approaches. He said this during a seminar organized by a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) known as Grassroots Accountability Advocacy Foundation(GAAF) in Owerri. Ikokwu stated that the job of the police is to protect lives and property adding that their job is also performed during electioneering periods or electoral processes due to the extent politicians could go in their political activities. He said he does not see anything bad in a political party winning an election and appointing a person from another political party as part of the ruling  party in power irrespective of different ideologies. But because of the desire to take all the powers involved, especially material things, they cannot do that. And in order to take over government, they resort to violence, using the youth. The PPRO confessed that at times when doing a good job for the society, their hands are tied because of the interests of some highly placed individuals, which is the nature of the job.  He told a story of what happened when he was serving in Ondo state, when he led some officers to arrest some group of bad boys. He was later denied by the Commissioner who sent him because some highly placed individuals came into the case. He also disclosed that in electioneering, a policeman is not expected to arrest an offender except he is given an order to do so by an electoral officer whom he is working with or he sees one committing suicide as he is passing by. But he advised that a police officer has to be honest at all times. He seized the opportunity afforded by the seminar to condemn police officers who collect “roja” on the way, saying that they will be punished alongside the giver if caught. He advised motorists to refuse giving policemen money even at the risk of spending extra time on the way, adding that he or his office should be notified in a situation like that.

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