Deployment of 30,000 police to Ekiti makes no sense – Senate

Senate yesterday condemned the federal government for deploying 30,000 police officers and men for the governorship election coming up in Ekiti this coming Saturday while killings of innocent Nigerians continue unabated across the country.

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, and Deputy Senate Leader, Bala Ibn Na’Allah (APC Kebbi South) said it did not make any sense for the Nigeria Police Force, to deploy such number of security agents while it had failed to deploy 10, 000 to Zamfara and other states where there are high level of insecurity.

The two principal officers spoke during the consideration of a bill for an Act to repeal and re-enact the Police Act of 1943, which has been in existence for about 75 years without any amendment.

Specifically, Na’Allah, while stressing the need to reform the Nigeria Police for better service, after he had presented the bill during plenary, frowned at the government’s insensitivity to the spate of killings in the country while paying attention to a governorship election.

He said: “30,000 policemen to supervise an election in Ekiti while they could not mobilise 10,000 men to stop the killings in Zamfara and other places.

“We would continue to tell the people that we will leave our promise that is why we are before you for the reform. Let it not be a situation where a killing would be involved and we have far less than 10,000 police men to save precious lives and an election is going on and we have 30,000 police.

“I don’t like that situation. I appall it and I think that it does not represent what we stand for as a party and therefore we would seek the indulgence of our colleagues to reform this institution that is called the Nigerian Police.”

In his remarks, Ekweremadu, who presided over the plenary, condemned the mobilisation of such huge number of police men for a day election while hundreds of innocent people are being killed on daily basis in some states.

“In response to this your last statement, I am also worried about the fact that we have 30,000 police men you can deploy in a state for election and the other issue here is the issue of sincerity in deploying 30,000 policemen and (if) it would ensure security of lives and properties, there is no problem with that,” he said.

Leave a Reply