,Alkali Baba
By Gom Mirian
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), has described the 2023 general elections as the most peaceful and best organized elections he witnessed in his career as a policeman.
Alkali Baba said this in Abuja while addressing newsmen after touring eight polling stations in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
According to him, the responses of people from the polling stations he visited were encouraging.
He said, “I can adjudge that this is the most peaceful and best organized election I have witnessed in my career in the Police Force.
“I visited the INEC Chairman at the International Conference Centre (ICC), which is going to serve as National Collation Centre (NCC).
“I saw the level of preparedness there, and I am satisfied with the type of responses, results, and information they are getting from the field.
“The performance of INEC officials, the performance of security officers and the populace on how they are responding to the issue of exercising their power of votes are all being accessed there and information is being collected.
“We are also in a very critical period now which is the sorting and counting in most of the polling stations we have visited, and the responses of people are encouraging, people are guiding their votes, the provision of security is also fantastic.
“I have been participating in elections and election security, and I think we have done well so far.
“Generally, the performances of everybody are encouraging, particularly the turnout in the South East, which is very encouraging.”
The IGP speaking on the reported bomb blast in Maiduguri on Saturday, the elections day, said, “Election is going on very fine everywhere.
“It is not true that we have blasts in Maiduguri, but we have a blast in Borno state, which is Gwoza. From Gwoza to Maiduguri is over 200 kilometres apart.
“In that blast, we expected this kind of situation, and we made proactive arrengement. Quite alright, our adversaries have sent in whatever you called it, but it has not distorted the election anywhere.”
The IGP visited over eight polling stations in the FCT such as 015,016,017 along Muhammadu Buhari Way Area 8 Garki, Polling Unit 038 Federal Capital Development Authority Quarters Gate, and polling unit 001 Life Camp Abuja among others.
Meanwhile, most of the voters who expressed their opinions with African health report expressed divergent views about the general conduct of the election.
While some praised the security operatives and INEC for the peaceful conduct of the exercise in the FCT, some said it was characterized with issues such as late arrival of materials in some polling units and voter suppression.
However, most of the polling agents, including those of the PDP, LP, and APC, agreed that the turnout of voters was impressive.
