The Nigeria Police on Saturday said they have arrested no fewer than 10 political thugs for various offences during the conduct of supplementary poll in the state.
Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Anthony Ogbizi, disclosed this while speaking to journalists at the Bompai headquarters of the command.
He denied the allegation that the police had failed to provide adequate security for the election, thereby necessitating the reign of thugs.
He also dismissed the allegation by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) that thugs took over the polling units during the conduct of the exercise.
According to him, “we made some arrest at the early hours of this morning. I may not be able to give the exact number of the people arrested. I cannot tell you whether they are black or white in terms of identity; but I can tell you that some human beings were arrested, and they are detained and being interrogated.
“They were arrested because they were found with sticks or in groups. We arrested more than 10 of them. They are not party officials because you cannot identify them with PDP or APC membership cards.”
“I think the security arrangement was quite in order. We did not witness any ugly incident, except minor and isolated incidences which were quickly addressed.
“Voting went on in all the polling units,” he stated.
“The process of collating the result is on; some have now moved to the collation centres and there have not been any protest.”
He pointed out that, “if thugs had occupied any polling unit, certainly, INEC would not have been comfortable to bring out their materials to conduct the voting process.
“Voters that went to vote could not have been able to vote. Again, you know it is a secret ballot, so we do not know which party or candidate the voters are voting for.
“The results have not come yet. Police are never involved in the conduct of the election; we are involved in providing security for the smooth conduct of the election. So, to accuse the police wrongly, I think it is unfair.”
