CITIZENS COMPASS– LAGOS State Police Command has arrested some suspects in connection with pockets of violence which erupted in Lagos during the Saturday, February 25, 2023 elections.
The state Commissioner of Police, CP Idowu Owohunwa, confirmed the arrests, in his updates, on Channels TV.
He said the situation had been brought under control.
The CP said the affected Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials were “rescued”.
“I can confirm that several arrests have been made but as at this moment it is still an ongoing process. So, I cannot conclusively say this is the number of polling units where violence was recorded but at the end of the day we will do a post-election evaluation and come up with specifics,” the police commissioner said.
Though there were skirmishes in some parts, Mr Owohunwa insists the polls have been largely peaceful.
He said: “It was an admixture of very peaceful conduct in most parts but we also recorded isolated instances of thuggery. Like I said earlier, we anticipated them and we have multiple teams to respond in the fastest manner.
“We were able to stabilise the situation and rescue the INEC officials,”.
The Nigeria Police Force has said it would deploy 310,973 of its personnel to the over 176,846 polling units nationwide for Saturday’s election.
It was declared the personnel would consist of conventional policemen and women, the mobile police, the special counter-terrorism unit, Special Forces, the intelligence response team
The Force also said this number would be augmented with 51,000 personnel from the National Security and Civil Defense Corps, 21,000 from the Federal Road Safety Corps, 11,336 from the Nigeria Correctional Service, 9,447 from the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency and 350 personnel from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
