![](\"http:\/\/arewa.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/INEC-fixes-date-for-Plateau-bye-election.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMr Hakeem Busari, Commissioner of Police in the state, said this was aimed at ensuring free and fair election, as well as credible and acceptable results.<\/p>\n
Busari made this known in Lokoja, while addressing more than 500 youths from across the state, who held a procession to sensitise voters on a non-violent poll in the state.<\/p>\n
The youths were bearing placards with inscriptions such as \u201cVote Not Fight\u2019\u2019 and \u201cElection No Be War\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n
The police commissioner, who commended the youths for the initiative, said the police and other security agencies would ensure security of lives and property before, during and after the election.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will deploy enough personnel because we are going to have adequate support from the Inspector General of Police (IGP) from the Force headquarters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe polling booths and the wards are going to be properly policed and enough policemen will be on patrol. So we do not have anything to fear as far as the Nov. 16 election is concerned,\u2019\u2019 Busari said.<\/p>\n
He advised politicians and other stakeholders to \u201cplay the game according to the rules\u2019\u2019 and conduct themselves in a peaceful manner to make the work of security agents easy.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Prof. James Apam, state Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) pledged that the commission would do nothing short of ensuring free, fair and credible election.<\/p>\n
Apam, who was represented by Alh. Ahmed Bagudu-Biambo, Head, Voter Education and Publicity, Kogi INEC, also commended the youths for the initiative.<\/p>\n
He noted that election violence had far-reaching consequences, as the vulnerable, women and children were affected, and many electorate were often disenfranchised, NAN reports.<\/p>\n
Presenting their \u201cVote, Not Fight\u2019\u2019 youths position, leader of the group, Mrs Gift Omoniwa, said it was time to end the cycle of using youths as thugs to perpetrate electoral violence.<\/p>\n
Omoniwa, who noted that youths constituted more than 60 per cent of the state\u2019s population, and also represented majority of registered voters, had regrettably remained marginalised and under-represented in decision making.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen election violence occurs, the youths, their mothers, sisters and persons living with disabilities are the first victims. Today, we have come to say no to electoral violence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hereby state our firm resolve to shun violence in the Nov. 16 2019, Off Cycle Governorship Election in Kogi State. For us, non-violent and peaceful election is non-negotiable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe remind all the political parties and their gladiators that the legitimacy of any government lies in its emergence from a peaceful, free, fair and credible election,\u2019\u2019 she added.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Nigeria Police, Kogi command, has promised to ensure unbiased and highly effective coverage of the Nov. 16, Governorship Election. Mr Hakeem Busari, Commissioner of Police in the state, said this was aimed at ensuring free and fair election, as well as credible and acceptable results. Busari made this known in Lokoja, while addressing more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,3,4],"tags":[11480,11047,12975,12974,62],"class_list":["post-143641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-more","category-news","category-politics","tag-nigeria-2","tag-kogi-2019","tag-kogi-election","tag-kogi-guber","tag-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/133257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}