Rivers election: Police to deploy 20,000 personnel, says IGP

Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, Inspector General of Police

The Police is to deploy about 20, 000 of its personnel to Rivers to provide security during the forthcoming re-run elections in the state.

The Inspector General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris, disclosed this while addressing Officers and men of Kano State Police Command on Saturday.

He said that 20 gun boats and three helicopters would also be deployed to the state to enhance security during the elections.

He said the force had taken adequate security measures to ensure that the elections were peaceful.

According to him, the Nigeria Police force is planning to establish a school in Kaduna for the training of mobile policemen in the country.

He said the idea of establishing the school was in line with the commitment of the force to ensure professionalism.

He said that plan was also in the pipeline to establish marine training school in Imo state.

“The Governor of Imo State, Chief Rochas Okorocha, has promised to build the school for the force,” he said.

The IGP promised to improve the welfare of officers and men of the force.

He urged them to be disciplined and avoid any act capable of denting the image of the police.

Earlier, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Rabiu Yusuf, said that within the last six months, the command had rescued 15 out of 55 persons kidnapped in the state.

He said during the various operations, the command recovered a number of weapons, 96 cows, 56 handsets and 10 motorcycles, among others.

He, however, called on the IGP to consider the possibility of deploying additional policemen to Kano state as the 7,967 Police Officers in the state, were grossly inadequate.