TheCable

Those who are not directly involved with the governorship poll in Osun State on Saturday will not be allowed to move around during the election, the acting inspector general of police, Suleiman Abba, has warned.

His statement is thought to be directed at party leaders from other states of the federation.

The All Progressives Congress (APC), for instance, has directed all its elected representatives from all over the country to be in Osun for the poll.

Its national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, also said the party was moving its secretariat temporarily to Osun for the election.

But Abba, while fielding questions from correspondents after a meeting with Vice-President Namadi Sambo, in Abuja, said only people who have official functions to perform would be allowed to move freely within Osun during the election.

To ensure peace and compliance with law and order in Osun, he said he had to modify the operational guidelines left behind for the election by his predecessor, Mohammed Abubakar, who retired last week.

Police would not be in Osun “in time” ahead of the election, Abba said.

He said: “When I took over on Friday, I met an operational order in place, I went through it quickly and made a number of adjustments which include the fact that we need to be there early enough, so I adjusted the time that officers were directed to report.

“I made sure that by Saturday, they were there. And the aim is that if any one, is training anybody to cause violence, we are telling him that we would make sure the law takes its course.

“In fact, my advice is this, if you don’t have any business with Osun elections, just don’t go there because the law will catch up with you. This is my advice.”

He also said he would release his strategy to combat Boko Haram in the days ahead.

“I must tell you, I would like to categorise all of them whether insurgency or kidnapping, or armed robbery ─ all of them are violent crimes and the first and foremost thing we are going to do is to make efforts to ensure that it does not continue to spread. And these strategies will come into place before the end of the week, I assure you,” he said.