Election: Police plan to tackle identify flashpoints

•EOD to mobilise anti-bomb experts, others

THE police yesterday said they have identified emerging threats and had mobilised Explosives Ordinance Disposal (EOD) personnel to marked areas for necessary action, as the general elections draw closer.

This is just as the service also said it would take delivery of more equipment next week that would further enhance the performance of the anti-bomb experts across the country.

Commissioner of Police in charge of EOD Kayode Egbetokun stated this at the department’s first quarterly conference with senior officers and base commanders held in Lagos.

Themed: “Emerging threat and strategic coverage of the 2019 election,” Egbetokun said the conference provided an opportunity to review the department’s performance in previous elections as well as brainstorm on how to achieve greater success in the coming elections.

He said: “We know how important the role of the EOD is in an election. We have looked at what we have to do viz-a-viz our capacity and capability. We know our strength and we have taken care of our weaknesses. We know the external opportunities available to us and we know the threats we are facing.

“Where we have identified gaps, we are closing them. We have our strategy in place for this election. We have been doing it before and have been succeeding. We are at the conference to put finishing touches to our plan. We will discharge our duties creditably well.

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“By this time next week, we would have taken delivery of additional equipment to boost our operational capacity. I cannot disclose our strategy to the public but be assured that we have mobilised additional personnel and will cover the entire country. The threat index available to us has already put us ahead of the criminals.”

To his men, he said there was no excuse for failure in their assigned roles in the coming elections, reminding them that Nigerians looked up to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Police for a pleasant experience in during and after the elections.