– Dickson describes polls result as rape of democracy
By our reporters
THE Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu on Tuesday attributed the violence witnessed during Saturday’s governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi States on ‘fake policemen.
Adamu told State House correspondents after debriefing President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, that there were reports prior to the polls that politicians had sewn police and military uniforms for thugs, adding, “During the elections, anybody you saw either in police uniform or military uniform that did not carry the tag that had been given for the election, that person was not a genuine police officer or military officer or he was not on official duty.
“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.
“There was a police helicopter that was hovering. It was on patrol, and in the course of patrol, you will see some incidence of maybe people fighting, people trying to snatch ballot boxes. You need to intervene. In the course of intervention, of course, you can never use firearms because during elections we don’t carry firearms.
“So, that helicopter you saw was to patrol and scare those that would want to snatch ballot boxes. Of course, if you see a helicopter hovering over your head, if you wanted to snatch a ballot box or you had carried one, definitely you would know you are being monitored and you would stop. So, prevention was our focus.”
He dismissed allegations that the police aided in ballot snatching, saying that 11 suspects were arrested in Kogi and Bayelsa for sundry offenses.
Reacting to Adamu’s explanation, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said it was “careless and most unfortunate.”
PDP spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, said in a tweet: “The statement credited to the IGP that ‘fake policemen’ disrupted the elections in Kogi and Bayelsa is nothing but careless and most unfortunate. To think that nearly 35 thousand policemen were deployed for the election yet they were overpowered by ‘fake policemen’ speaks volume.”
Meanwhile, Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson has described the results of Saturday’s election as a rape of democracy. He said: “What happened in Bayelsa is one of the most brazen acts of distortion and rape of our democracy. What took place was not a democratic election. It was a military coup. It was the height of conspiracy by the Federal Government and security agencies to subvert the democratic rights of our people for the sole purpose of foisting the APC on the people.”
Addressing the media on Tuesday in Yenagoa, Dickson dismissed the perceptions that his party lost the election because he allegedly had a strained relationship with former President Goodluck Jonathan.
“No politician has stood by Jonathan more than me. They used Jonathan to expand the notion of disagreement and after the rigging, went to him like Pontius Pilate to wash off their hands and put it at his doorsteps, to say he sanctioned it,” he said.
