Security agents hold show of force in Abia

A combined team of security agents in Abia State yesterday went round the major streets of the capital, Umuahia, and the commercial city of Aba in a joint show of force (JSF) exercise ahead of today’s elections.

The security agents drove round in a convoy to show their readiness to deal with any threat to peace.

The Aba exercise took off from the Area Command of the police.

Addressing the personnel at the end of the patrol,  Assistant Commissioner of Police in-charge of the Aba Area Command, Peter Okpara, thanked the personnel for comporting themselves well while the operation lasted.

He said: “Tomorrow (today) is the D-Day. The security agencies are on ground to discharge their duties, according to the constitution. You must protect INEC officials, election materials, voters, foreign observers and yourselves.

“You shouldn’t be biased; there’s no friendship in election. Do your work the way it should be done. No brother, no party affiliation, no religion, no tribe.

“Comport yourselves. From 12midnight, all of us must be on.

“You must be careful because the world is watching us. If this election goes well, others will take the glory. But when it goes bad, they will blame us and that is why we must be professional. We will not fail. Be at your duty post as early as possible, for without your presence, no INEC staff will work until you come.”

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was also busy distributing non-sensitive materials, including card readers to the various local government areas.

The spokesman for the INEC in the state, Mr. Oyetunji Bamidele, said the commission was fully prepared for the polls.

He said: “We are fully prepared. We started distributing non-sensitive materials on Wednesday.

“Our security arrangement is superb. It is being coordinated by the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election and Security. We have put adequate measures to ensure that everything goes according to plans.

“We are urging Abians to ensure that they go about to perform their franchise. The police are equal to the task. We have about 1.9million voters in Abia State. We are urging them to come out and ensure that they exercise their franchise.”