Ahead of today’s presidential election, Sunday Babaji, the commissioner of police assigned to the Kaduna State Command for election duties, ordered strict enforcement of vehicular and pedestrian movement throughout the 23 local government areas of the state.
According to the Command’s spokesman, DSP Muhammad Jalige, the restriction order will be in effect from midnight until 6:00 p.m. on Saturday and will apply to all points of entry into Kaduna state.
The statement emphasized that 16,000 police officers had been deployed to secure every polling unit, allowing all eligible voters to exercise their right to vote without fear of intimidation from any source.
The statement read;
It is equally advised that no large gatherings, campaign or political rallies under whatever guise will be tolerated within the stipulated restriction hours and violators of the said order will be dealt with.
The Command is therefore calling on all law-abiding citizens of the State to comply with this restriction order, all eligible voters are allowed to go out and exercise their franchise without fear of intimidation from any quarter.
Effective security deployment of over sixteen thousand Police personnel has been made to secure all the polling units and collation centers across the State and a Rapid Response Team situated in all the Local Government Areas to promptly respond to distress calls.
It is notwithstanding advised that while the election is ongoing the public should be security conscious of their environment and report suspicious activities or persons to the nearest security formation or via the Kaduna Police Command designated emergency mobile phone numbers 08075391105 and 07039675856 for prompt intervention.
The Commissioner of Police thus solicits for understanding from the public as to any inconvenience the restriction might cause.