Heavy security as police deploy 11,000, CP moved

[Sunexx360]

Tension was high in Ondo State on Friday as armed security personnel patrolled the major streets of Akure, the state capital and other towns in the state ahead of today's governorship election in the state.
Officers of the anti-terrorism squad on the Nigeria Police Force were seen in a convoy of vans patrolling the streets of Akure. Armour personnel carriers also combed the nooks and crannies of the state to ensure that violence would not break out before or during the election.
Helicopters carrying security men hovered round the capital, while armed soldiers mounted checkpoints and searched vehicles coming in to the town.
The state government directed workers to close by 12 pm on Friday so that they could travel to their different local government areas where they registered to exercise theirfranchise.
The Independent National Electoral Commission headquarters at Alagbaka was heavily guarded by soldiers, mobile policemen and Federal Road Safety Corps officers.
The police stationed one anti-bomb disposal van at the office, while policemen searched visitors with metal detectors.
The Commissioner of Police in Rivers State, Mr. Muhammad Indabawa, has been temporarily redeployed to Ondo State to be in charge of security, while the Commissioner of Police in Ondo, Mr. Danladi Mshelbwala, was redeployed to Rivers State for the duration of the poll.
Indabawa, at a news conference at the Police Headquarters in Akure on Thursday said that the police, the military and other security personnel were ready to ensure thatthe governorship poll was violence free.
He said that 11,000 policemen, and three commissioners of police were also deployed to head the security units in each of the three senatorial districts in the state.
Indabawa, while appealing to residents to be law abiding, said that security men deployed were not to harass voters. But he threatened that anybody caught disrupting the election would be decisively dealt with.
The new CP said, "Ondo State is bigger than any individual. We won't allow anybody to disrupt the election. If you don't have business at the pooling units, don't go there.If you misbehave, we will arrest you.
"The election of 2007 was adjudged to be the worst but the election conducted in 2011 was applauded to be better than 2007.The election in Edo State was better and we want this Ondo election to be better.
"Movement into the state will be restricted starting from 6 pm today (Friday). This restriction is not a curfew. If there is a curfew, how will the people go and vote? But we will ensure that those who want to disrupt the poll are not allowed to do so.
"We heard that some persons are planning to bring in hoodlums into the state to cause violence we want to tell them that we are ready for them. The military have brought in more men, the SSS have also brought in more men."   source:Punchng