By Omezia Ajayi

The Edo State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Chris Ezike, has said that  22,603 policemen will be deployed for the election. This is aside officers that will join forces with other security agencies.

He spoke at an Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on the election at the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. This is apart from deployments by other security agencies.

The Edo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr. Sam Olumekun, at the meeting disclosed that registered voters in the state at the moment stood at 1,925,105, while an estimated 400,000 Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs remain outstanding.

“Expressing confidence in the preparations of the Police for the polls, Mr. Ezike said: “for the Edo election, we are good to go. We will not give room for ballot snatching”.

INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, who chaired the meeting, commended the Police for putting a robust security arrangement in place. “If we can implement what you have presented on paper at this meeting, then we can all look forward to a successful outing in Edo.”

Representatives from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Prisons Service, Immigration Service, Department of State Services (DSS), Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and the Federal Fire Service attended the meeting.

Others include representatives from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).