THE Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, in a surprise move late on Wednesday, named Mr Femi Adenaike as the new Commissioner of Police (CP) for Edo State, an action which came about 48 hours to Saturday's governorship election in the state.Abubakar was said to have made the change in leadership at the Benin airport just before his departure for Abuja after attending the Edo governorship election final stakeholders meeting and addressing officers and personnel of the police at the Zone 5 command headquarters in Benin City, the state capital.Adenaike was at one time a deputy commissioner of police at the Edo State command of the Nigeria Police and later promoted to the position of commissioner of police operating from Force Headquarters, Abuja.Nigerian Tribune gathered that the new CP who might have had no foreknowledge of his appointment to head the Edo command had been given the special mandate to see to the success of the state governorship poll.Adenaike, by his new posting, replaced Mr Olayinka Balogun, who had spent barely six months as the Edo State police command boss.Meanwhile, TENSION and temper rose in the House of Representatives, on Wednesday, as members, were divided over the deployment of about 3,500 soldiers in Edo State, ahead of the gubernatorial election in the state slated for Saturday.This is coming just as the Speaker, Honourable Aminu Tambuwal, reversed himself and apologised to his colleagues for the ruling he made when the issue of deployment of soldiers in Edo State was put up for vote and he 'wrongly' ruled in favour of those against the motion.The decision was sequel to a point of order raised on the matter by the Minority Leader of the House, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, challenging the ruling.The Deputy Speaker, Honourable Emeka Ihedioha and the House Leader, Honourable Mulikat Adeola-Akande, had to confer with the speaker and after the consultation, the speaker then reversed his ruling and put the motion on hold till today.Meanwhile, the chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, on Wednesday, in Benin City, Edo State, admitted that fake voter cards were in circulation in the state.At a stakeholders' meeting organised for governorship candidates by the electoral body, Jega expressed disappointment at the desperation of some of the candidates in the election, adding that the fake cards were a bold attempt to clone the original.According to Jega, to ensure free and fair polls, the ballot boxes that would be used for the election had special security features, which would make it impossible to be diverted from one local government to the other, saying that the measure would deter ballot box snatching.Speaking earlier, Governor Adams Oshiomhole alerted that he had credible intelligence that fake army and police uniforms were being sewn by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), with which their agents would be clothed on the election day to disrupt the polls.However, the INEC boss and the acting Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, warned political parties, candidates and politicians involved in the election against the breach of peace, adding that security would not be compromised.The police boss said his coming to Edo State was to show the importance the government attached to the election and to ensure there was adequate security, as well as to assure the people that the police were prepared.'We have moved massive men and material to Edo State,' Abubakar said, just as he warned that utterances that would create chaos would not be tolerated.Meanwhile, the Police Service Commission (PSC), pursuant to its constitutional responsibilities for police accountability, will be monitoring police conduct during the election.Its spokesman, Ferdinand Ekpe, in a statement in Abuja, on Wednesday, said the monitoring team would be led by Dr Otive Igbuzor, in commissioner in charge of strategy and other senior management team of the commission.The commission therefore urged all stakeholders in the election to play according to the rule and be law abiding.
Click here to read full news..
