Nigeria Police Arrested 203 Hoodlums During Elections; Recovered 18 Firearms

Inspector General of Police of the Nigeria Police Force, Usman Alkali Baba disclosed that 203 people have been arrested during the February presidential and National Assembly elections for several electoral offenses.

Baba shared this information during a meeting held at Abuja's Force Headquarters on Monday. The Inspector General of Police also revealed that 18 firearms have been recovered from these thugs, who were arrested for 185 major incidents.

"In this regard, of the about 185 major incidents that the police responded to across the country during the elections, a total of 203 offenders linked to various electoral offenses and sundry crimes have so far been arrested," Baba said during the meeting, Punch reported.

He added, "Not less than 18 firearms of various descriptions were recovered from political thugs during the exercise. All the cases are at various stages of investigations at the Nigeria Police Electoral Offences Desks and I assure you that in due course they will be concluded and processed to the legal department of the Independent National Electoral Commission for prosecution."

The meeting was held to discuss election security management duties and learn about the problems faced during the Feb. 25 presidential and National Assembly elections, so that those issues can be fixed ahead of the upcoming governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections, which will be held on March 11.

"This is towards drawing on their practical experiences for informed feedbacks that will aid us in evaluating our operational performance and identifying logistics gaps and other challenges that might have been experienced during the exercise," the chief officer explained.

He went on to explain that this discussion will help them to "assess the security situation at all levels" and identify "trends and patterns within the post-election security space, and draw inferences on possible threats that may require mitigation ahead of the next rounds of the national electoral process on March 11, 2023."

Baba also praised the high level of resilience and professionalism displayed by Nigeria Police alongside other security agencies during the elections.

Considering the upcoming elections, the officer shared that they are "evolving pathways to incrementally strengthen its operational capacity and professional knowledge in navigating through the complex electoral process dynamics to police our democratic heritage and meet the expectations of the electorates."

As far as Feb. 25 presidential election poll is concerned, All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Bola Tinubu was named as the winner as he defeated the People's Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party (LP) candidate Peter Gregory Obi.

Tinubu won with 8,794,726 votes while Abubakar received 6,984,520 votes, according to INEC. Obi, on the other hand, secured 6,101,533 votes. Both the parties - LP and PDP - didn't accept the outcome and said they would be challenging INEC's decision in court.

Former President of the Senate of Nigeria and National Chairman of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu also led a protest at INEC on Monday along with other leaders of the party, including Ifeanyi Okowa