Bukola Idowu, Executive Director, Kimpact Development Initiative, KDI has identified the poor provision for the welfare of security agencies as one of the factors that lead to the display of unprofessionalism while carrying out election duties.
Bukola Idowu made the disclosure during an exclusive interview with BONews Service ahead of the gubernatorial election in Edo State.
Idowu explained that it is not certain that the Nigeria Police Force has made adequate provision for the welfare of the officers and that makes them to
“If police officers should sleep in a primary school or polling units, how would they be able to react normally with people during the elections,” he asked.
He also noted that it is important that the police is being monitored to ensure the protection of citizens and their mandates.
“If the police announce that 31,000 officers have been deployed to Edo State, who monitors those that have been deployed? How is this verified to ensure that those officers are truly available to protect the people of Edo,” Idowu added.
The KDI director also disclosed that the pre assessment carried out by the organization revealed that the citizens do not trust the security agencies to protect them.
He thereafter urged the police to note that they do not belong to any political party and they should use the opportunity of the Edo election to redeem their image and gain the trust of the citizens.
Speaking about the cases of violence during the election, Idowu noted that the assessment that was conducted revealed that Igweben Local Government Area is the only LGA without case of potential violence.
He urged the security officers to be at alert ahead in the other local governments where there could be issues of violence in the state.