The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday inaugurated a 13-member security sub-committee for the 2019 general elections in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi state capital. The Commissioner of Police, Ebonyi state Command, Mr. Titus Sumba-Lamorde and the chairman of the Inter Agency Consultative on Election Security (IACES) who carried out the inauguration, requested the sub-committee to articulate security strategies ahead of the general elections.
The Committee comprises of the Police, DSS, Army, Prisons, Road Safety, Drugs Law Enforcement Agency, Civil Defence, Immigration, among others. Speaking at the event, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr Samuel Yomi, who represented the Compol said;
“Security is not a one man business, it is a joint effort and collaboration and we have to synergise and that is why we have so many people who are security officials in the committee. Security is one of the essential things to think and talk about preparatory to any election and where security is in-adequate or lacking during election there is likely going to be problem”.
Speaking earlier, Resident Electoral Officer (REC), Prof. Godswill Obioma said the inauguration of the Security Strategy Planning Sub-Committee was part of the early preparatory arrangements embarked upon by the commission to ensure credible elections in Ebonyi.
“The election is less than one year from now and preparations for the elections have kicked off well in earnest. Our national office has asked state offices to go back and put in place all activities that will prepare us for the elections of 2019.
What we are doing today is one of those activities; to think and plan ahead of time in terms of security. Security is very very important in our quest to achieve credible, free and fair elections in 2019. We will not want to wait until two or three months to the elections to begin to plan, that is why we have set up this sub-committee on security strategy planning.
“The team will begin now to articulate what it will take to secure the state and make it safe for the elections,” he added.
