COMMISSIONER of Police in Ekiti State, Mr Felix Uyanna, is working round the clock to ensure that the June 21 governorship election in the state is conducted in a peaceful atmosphere.

In this interview, Uyanna speaks on what the Police Command, under his leadership, is doing to provide  security ahead of the poll. Excerpts:

By DAPO AKINREFON

There have been reports of attacks allegedly carried out by political parties in the run-up to the Ekiti gubernatorial election. What  measures have you put in place to ensure the poll is peaceful?
We have been proactive in the sense that right from the commencement of the political campaigns, we  had  interactive sessions with the stakeholders especially the candidates of the  political parties including their party executives.

This is to ensure that they maintain a level-playing ground and that they talk to their supporters. We also ensure that they comply with the Electoral Act.
Besides talking to them, we are using the carrot and stick approach so that if you cross certain lines and infringe on the law, you  will be charged to court.

If you look at the statistics, since the commencement of the campaigns, there was an increase of violence, but because of the actions we have been taking, not minding the personalities, we were willing to step on toes, the incidences have gone down drastically.

We have charged to court and the cases cut across the three major political parties.
Since the beginning of this month, we have only recorded one case and most of the cases have been charged to court.

Once they see you to be fair and that you are maintaining a level-playing ground, they will respect you. But I want you to know that the three major political parties have been accusing the police and I feel happy when all of them accuse me rather than just one accusing me.

How have you been handling cases of attacks that are genuine, trivial and outright falsehood in the course of the electioneering campaigns?
Those that engage in outright falsehood are those that report but do not follow up. Some of the parties come to make a general statement that their billboards have been pulled down and when you ask them to substantiate some suspects they fail.

The genuine cases are the ones that when you investigate, and those involved are charged to court. We have recorded cases as minor as tearing of party posters to issues of attempted murder.

The level of violence we have witnessed is not unexpected, but it has not gone to the extreme. Nobody has been killed, no house has been set ablaze,  no car has been burnt but we have had cases of breaking of  vehicle windscreens and occasional assault.

The only case we have had that is extreme is attempted murder and we have charged to court.
Tell us what the inter-agency consultative committee on the election is doing to ensure free and fair poll.

I co-chair the committee with the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ekiti State and the duties are defined. As the Co-chairman of the committee, I am more concerned about safety and security, to make sure that we provide a level-playing ground for all stakeholders.

To make that possible, I provide security for the electoral process. The integrity of the electoral process is to be ensured by the election management body, that is INEC.

INEC will be the one that will comment on the issue of integrity but that does not mean that I am not taking any keen interest in that because once there is lack of sincerity or lack of justice, it is a recipe for violence.

I should be interested in knowing what INEC is doing though it is not my duty but as the person co-chairing the inter-agency consultative committee on election security, I also take interest in what INEC is doing so that they will conduct an election that is credible.

What about security before, during and after the elections
We are working with other security agencies. Within the inter-agency consultative committee, we have the security sector forum. The committee comprises of the police and INEC with their heads as executive chairmen.

You also have the army, the SSS, the civil defence, immigration, road safety, the National Orientation Agency, the National Youth Service Corps who are part of the inter-agency consultative committee.

There is also the security sector forum, which I also chair,  and which excludes INEC, the NOA and the NYSC. In this forum, we discuss issues that will ensure a level-playing ground for all the political parties.

The political parties apply to the Commissioner of Police before they can hold rallies and we make sure we give them approval. It is also our duty that, at the venue, they are not attacked or molested.

In the venues where the parties hold rallies we have approved, the DPO and his men will be there. We send patrol vehicles and, of course, we tell the neighboring DPOs to be on the look out and make sure that people are not molested at the rallies or attacked.

And because we have been doing this, so far, the level of violence has been brought down drastically. We are just four weeks away to the election and people were looking forward that by now there would have been mayhem.

To that extent, I would say we are doing our best  but I agree that we can still improve to reduce everything about violence to the barest minimum. But we are managing human beings.

Like I mentioned, beside talking to the leaders, we have had interactions with all sectors of the society, we have been partnering with them including the traditional rulers.

The police have been  accused of being compromised in previous elections. What measures are you putting in place to ensure this does not occur this time around?
We have been training our men at the command level and the area commanders, DPO levels. We do lecture our men in Tuesdays and electoral officers have been invited to lecture the DPOs and his men.

At the command headquarters, the Resident Electoral Commissioner came and lectured me and my men. CLEAN Foundation has been a partner with the police. They will be coming to lecture us on issues relating to elections, election offenses, the conduct expected of police on election duty.

For the election, we expect that there will be more policemen from outside the state than the number I have on my strength, they will be coming to assist us. There will be a diffusion and a blend between the policemen coming from outside the state and the ones already on ground.

I expect 6,000 in addition to the 4,000 that I have here and we are also expecting 1,600 from other security agencies. All these will blend and work together. Some of them will be coming 24 hours to the election, under that circumstance, I do not think they will compromise.

Note also that we are going to use permanent voter’s cards which have chips inside  and will  will not be easy to forge. The era of stealing of ballot box is gone.
I expect also that during that time, we will have sniffer dogs, I expect to have one police helicopter for aerial surveillance.

I am also expecting that we will have police horses to help us have crowd control. We are set for the elections.

How optimistic are you that  the election will be violence free and devoid of irregularities?
We cannot guarantee 100 per cent but I believe that a huge success will be scored because if you score more than 80 per cent in any examination, you have done well. We are set, we are going to deploy enough Amoured Personnel Carriers and water canons, all in an attempt that we give everybody a level-playing ground. If there is any issue relating to violence, we will be able to counter it both from the air and on ground.