THERE was chaos in the House of Representatives, yesterday, as rival party members took strongly partisan positions over the deployment of troops ahead of the Edo State gubernatorial election.
The uproar ensued as the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega and the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar vowed at a stakeholders parley in Benin that this weekend’s election would be used as a test run of the pledge to ensure free and fair elections in the country.
The chaos in the House was stirred by Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN members following Speaker Aminu Tambuwal’s initial rejection of a motion proposed by a party member over the deployment of troops in Edo State for the election.
The gubernatorial campaign which is stretching into its final days had a temporary break as Jega, IGP Abubakar, met with the candidates to appraise security and other regulations concerning the election.
Jega and Abubakar on the occasion addressed serious concerns raised by the leading candidates, Adams Oshiomhole of the ACN and Charles Airhiavbere of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP over plans to rig the polls.
Among the observations raised by Oshiomhole at the stakeholders meeting were that the PDP was mobilizing fake soldiers and policemen and equally distributing fake voter’s cards for the election.
Airhiavbere on his part accused Oshiomhole of erecting campaign signboards and posters around polling centres.
IGP appoints new Police Commissioner for Edo
At the end of the meeting as the IGP prepared to board a plane back to Abuja, he directed the Commissioner of Police (Operations), Mr. Femi Adenaike who came with him to take over as the new Commissioner of Police for Edo State. All the Area Commanders and Divisional Police Officers, DPOs were also affected in the changes.
The Police Service Commission, PSC also, yesterday, said that it is deploying top officials of the commission to monitor conduct of policemen during the election. The commission has also released telephone numbers through which malfeasances by policemen could be channeled to.
