By Hassan Zaggi
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba Alkali, has ordered the distribution of over one million copies of the “Revised Standard Operational Guidelines/Rules for Police Officers and Other Law Enforcement Agents on Election Security Duties” ahead of the 2023 general elections.
This is order to ensure that all police officers and other security agents involved in election management are held accountable.
In a statement by the Force Spokesman, Olumuyiwa Adejobi (CSP), the IGP ordered that the handbook be distributed to the Presidency, Ministry of Police Affairs, Police Service Commission, the Military, and all other security agencies engaged alongside the Police in election security management based on their expected deployment for the elections.
The IGP, the statement said, reiterated his expectation that the Police and other security agents involved in election security management will find the handbook to be a valuable operational companion which could act as a standard in holding them accountable in the line of their electoral duties.
The IGP insisted that “all hands must be on deck to actualise the mandate and commitment of the NPF to have free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria.”
The hand book, the statement explained, was produced by the Nigeria Police Force.
“The 36 paged handbook contains a page for the details of the officer to whom it is issued, a foreword by the IGP, rules on general conduct, duty parade, briefing/debriefing, dress and accoutrement, managing political parties’ convention/rallies, and crowd control, use of force and lethal weapon, escorting and protecting election materials, the procedure of arrest, command and control and other salient electoral security rules,” the statement further explained.
The statement disclosed that the strategic distribution of the handbook covers the Force Headquarters, Zonal and State Police Commands, Formations and trickles down to Units of the Force and Divisional Police Stations to ensure that every police officer will have a copy of the guidelines for ease of reference before the commencement of deployments.
