Mbu: We won’t allow govs with convoy near polling centres

Governors were told on Thursday that they won’t be allowed near polling centres with convoy during the March 28 and April 11 general elections.
This is because their constitutional immunity does not extend to polling centres.
Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 2‎, Mr. Joseph Mbu, made the revelation while addressing officers and men of the Ogun State Police Command, Eleweran, Abeokuta.
He also told Governor Ibikunle Amosun when he visited him at the Governor’s Office that policemen were determined to protect the nation’s Electoral Act and would not condone any governor that disrupts the elections with entourage, vowing to uphold the code and ethics of the police force.
“I will not accept any form of thuggery and lawlessness from any political party at the polls. I won’t allow anybody turn the states in my care into a theatre of war. I will not accept any thuggery and lawlessness from any political party,” he told the governor.
While addressing officers and men in the state command, Mbu stressed the need for police to be disciplined and ‎impartial in the conduct of the general elections.
Mbu, who is in charge of Lagos and Ogun states, warned policemen against engaging in corrupt practices and acts capable of discrediting the electoral process, saying any officer found wanting would face serious sanctions.
He noted that the police hierarchy would ‎not allow governors and other elected office holders to intimidate eligible voters at the polling booths during the elections.
He added: “The governor will come quietly, may be with his ADC (aide-de-camp) to vote and walk away quietly. Anybody who comes there with people jumping down, don’t be intimidated. Stop them, even if he’s the governor, you have the power to say stop there and he stops there. Your Excellency, I don’t like your conduct.”
He declared that the police would not hesitate to arrest any officer found accompanying governors and other public office holders to disrupt elections.
Mbu said: “Our duty is to make sure that the elections are conducted freely, fairly and peacefully and violence-free. There must be a code of conduct that you have to uphold to make sure that we actualise our goals. Don’t bring God into this matter because you have to work hard before you now ask God to help you. How do you work hard. You make sure that you prepare.
“This is a turning point in the history of the Nigeria Police where you have two very powerful political parties contesting keenly. So, we have to be very serious. We have to be very bold. We have to be very brave. You must remain at your duty post. You must make sure you keep an eagle eye on everybody coming there.
“You must make sure that whatever is against the Electoral Act, you are there to stop it. You are not there to start greeting ‘Honourable or Oga how are you?’ No. That is your day. Everybody there is coming to line up. No governor, no president, no AIG, no IG. Everybody is lining up to vote and go his way.
“When they come there, if you like you can salute the governor. If you like don’t salute him. He’s coming there to come and vote. He votes and he goes away. Anybody who comes there with an entourage of vehicles, you arrest them immediately.
“Even if the governor comes there with an entourage and with policemen by his side to come and intimidate‎ people there, you call your senior because you don’t have the power over them. The governor will come quietly, may be with his ADC, to vote and walk away quietly.”
Mbu, who warned criminals against killing of policemen, however, said policemen should only fire their guns in self-defence.
He said: “Don’t touch my policeman. If you shoot my policeman, I will shoot twenty of you, I will shoot a hundred of you because we are coming to you for peace. We are not coming to you to come and kill you. You are not engaging us in gun battle. You are not armed robbers that are engaging us in gun battle.‎ You are having communal crisis, you are politicians, we are coming to settle you and you want to kill us, I say resist, I tell you again, resist. Anybody who fires you, fire him back in self-defence but don’t fire first.
‎”Anybody you see who is firing at other persons, fire him because you are trying to protect that other person because the law permits you. You are empowered to stop that person from causing the harm to the other person.
“It is clearly stated in the constitution that there shall be a Nigeria Police Force for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. There is no other police force. The military can come to us in aid of civil authority. We are the civil authority because we are supposed to deal with harmless civilians. So, we are the civil authorities.
“Our arms storage is limited because we are dealing with harmless civilians. But we have to use arms when the civilians are armed against us. In aid of civil authorities, we are the one in charge of apprehending offenders before, during or after elections. Every other person that is coming is only coming to help us. We are the authorities, we are the leading agency. So, you are a leading agency and you must take charge of wherever you are posted to.
“I say I have come here to blow air of courage and confidence into your body. Let me tell you: if we find you wanting in these coming elections, they will set up a commission of inquiry to investigate what happened and if you are guilty, you’ll go in for it.”