By Palma Ileye
In a bid to prevent pockets of violence witnessed during the 2023 Governorship and State Assembly election in some parts of the country from escalating, the Commandant General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Ahmed Abubakar Audi had ordered the deployment of the NSCDC reserve force to quell the situation and restore peace to the areas.
Audi in a press release issued yesterday by NSCDC, Director, Public Relations, CC Olusola Odumosu, gave this order to his field officers shortly after monitoring the security situation of the election across the nation from Control Centres situated at the NSCDC Headquarters, Sauka and the Federal Ministry of Interior, Garki-Abuja, all in the Federal Capital Territory.
According to him, the exercise could be adjudged as good with few cases of violence reported in some locations such as Lagos State, Ogun State, Cross Rivers State, Kogi State and Taraba State.
He assured that sanity has returned to many of the places because of the strategic solution provided by the NSCDC reserve force specially prepared for this kind of situation.
“For me, the election could be adjudged as good and it will be credible.
“Only a few cases of violence had been reported in some states and I have directed my officers coordinating the election in those states to move in our reserve force that we have prepared for this kind of assignment to arrest the situation.
“I assure you, normalcy had returned cos I am already getting reports that peace has been restored in some places and voting is going on peacefully,” CG said.
He gave kudos to all security personnel assigned for election duty for trying their best to maintain ambience of peace and orderliness during the voting process.
The CG commended the Ministry of Interior, especially the Minister, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola for putting in place a robust arrangement which made it convenient for all the agencies under its purview to monitor the security situation across the country from the Command and Control Room where personnel were drawn from different agencies to monitor and report events as they unfold before, during and after the election.
The Director, Joint Services in the Ministry of Interior, Dr John Egbedo, thanked the CG for his efforts towards nation building through effective service delivery, specifically on the preparation made by the Corps in its efforts towards ensuring that adequate security was provided during the election.
He commended the level of synergy among security agencies, assuring that the Ministry will continue to do its best to bring about technological improvements to serve as a catalyst to the growth of the services under the Ministry.
