Ekiti PDP Ward Congress: Police Command Clears Officers

By Ayodele Oni

As some Governorship aspirants of the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP) in Ekiti state continued to trade blame over the outcome of last Saturday’s Ward Congress delegates election, the State Police Command has absolved its officers and men of any complicity.

Among several allegations was that Policemen deployed to ensure peaceful exercise also joined in falsification of results.

But the Command, through its spokesman, Sunday Abutu, explained that no such report was brought to the attention of the Command during the exercise.

A statement made available to newsmen and signed by the Public Relations Officer of the command, ASP Sunday Abutu, stated that Policemen deployed for duty only provided security for party members and election materials.

The statement added that “the role of the Police was to provide adequate security, which the Command did successfully and after the whole exercise, a copy of the result was given to the Police by the People’s Democratic Party Congress Officials.

“The election, which was conducted on 15th January, 2022, had three(3) major actors which are: (a) the Party leaders that conducted the election (b) the INEC Officials that monitored the election and (c) the Police/other security agents that provided security.

“In order to ensure adequate security across the State throughout the period of the election, the Force Headquarters, Abuja, approved additional manpower from neighboring States.

“They covered the exercise and the total number of Police personnel and other Security agents that embarked on the exercise were adequately and timely deployed to all the Local Government Areas in the State and Koltotel Hotel that was used as the secretariat for election material distribution by the Party.

“More so, the Police escorted all the election materials to the Local Government Areas and without mincing words, there was no breakdown of law and order during the exercise.”