There will be no vehicular and human movements during the period of the Osun State Gubernatorial election on Saturday.
Human and vehicular movements will be restricted as from Friday midnight, twelve a.m of Saturday till 6.00 p.m of the same date, election day, but essential workers and accredited election observers and media will be allowed to operate.
Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of Osun governorship election, Johnson Kokumo said this at the end of Police interactive session with ‘Accredited Election Observer Groups’, NGOs and the media, ahead of the Osun governorship election.
He said though political players knew there was always restriction of movement during elections, it was pertinent to repeat and announce it so the public would know it had been emplaced.
Speaking earlier on the preparation of security agencies for the election, Kokumo said security agencies under the ‘inter-agency consultative committee on election security’ met severally and worked out security arrangements for the election.
He assured all and sundry that the police have the understanding, the cooperation and the collaboration of other security services.
According to him, specific duties had been rolled out for security agencies and the important thing is for them to achieve huge success at the polls.
He said adequate security arrangements and deployments had been made for the state’s three senatorial districts, the 332 wards and the 3,763 polling units.
In his words, in the course of deployment, officers are on the ground, air deployment with helicopters and also deployed police marine on the waterways.
He said adequate patrol would be in place to maintain peace and that other security agencies would man security at the state borders to prevent influx of arms and ammunition while the police would operate stop and search duties within the state.
Kokumo appealed to people of the state to cooperate with the police, play the game according to the rules and eschew bitterness and violence.
He asked parents to warn their children and wards to desist from all forms of violence and avoid all acts in violation of the 2022 Electoral Act.
Kokumo said the police were ready to arrest those who wanted to take laws into their hands or violate the electoral act.
On vote-buying, he said the police would leave no stone unturned to ensure those involved in buying and selling of votes were brought to book.
According to him, the police will stop at nothing to fish them out wherever they are, arrest them and process them through the court, saying vote buying and selling is an electoral offence.
He, however, appealed to the public to give the police credible information that would lead to the arrest of culprits, adding the appeal became necessary as vote buying and selling transaction were carried out in secrecy.
The DIG said the people should call the police on the election dedicated phone lines: 08039537995 , 08123823981, 08075872433, 08067788119, when the incident of vote buying and selling and other electoral offences were noticed.