The Inspector-General of Police, Maohammed Adamu, has ordered the restriction of vehicular movement from 11:59pm on Friday to 6pm on Saturday in Ondo State.
The order was contained in a statement by the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, on Friday.
According to Mba, the order is part of efforts by the Force to ensure effective coordination of public order and safety during the gubernatorial election.
He said the idea was to prevent political actors and trouble-makers from freely engaging in unpatriotic acts, circulation and use of illicit arms and hard drugs, movement of political thugs and disruption of the electoral processes.
Mba said the I-G called on residents of the state to go out in their numbers to exercise their franchise.
He said adequate security arrangement had been emplaced to secure the public space for the election.
According to him, Adamu enjoined the citizens to bear any inconveniences arising from the restriction order as it was part of necessary sacrifices to nurture and sustain democracy in the country.
He warned that anybody who engages in snatching of ballot boxes, vote buying, vote selling, hate speeches and any other act capable of compromising the integrity of the electoral process would be brought to book.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party has accused the All Progressives Congress of embarking on a spending spree to woo officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission and voters for the party’s candidate and incumbent, Rotimi Akeredolu.
According to sources within the PDP, the money being used to woo voters was in Dollar.
It said reports from the political fields across the state indicated that officials of the INEC participating in the governorship election are already being subjected to dollar rain by agents of the APC.
It said the party’s “men on the field report that APC agents in Ondo State are offering each of the Supervisory Polling Officers in each of the 3,009 polling units as much as $500 to deliver each of the polling units to Akeredolu of APC.
“As at the time information filtered, each of the SPOs were said to have been showered with an initial deposit of $300 with the promise that the balance of $200 will be redeemed immediately after the units are delivered.”
—