Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Governorship candidates in Imo State have reacted negatively to the shakeup in the state police command directed by the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris.
The candidates who spoke to our correspondents alleged that the deployment of the senior police officers was as a ploy to manipulate the elections in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
They argued that the redeployment of the Kogi State Commissioner of Police, Ali Janga, to Imo State, barely two months to the elections, was not mere coincidence but a calculated attempt to rig the polls.
The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Ifeanyi Araraume, while reacting to the shakeup reminded the incoming Commissioner of Police that “Imo is a no nonsense state.”
Araraume who spoke through his Director of Contact and Mobilisation, Vitalis Ajumbe, advised him to restrict himself to providing security of lives and property for people in the state and not to be allowed to be used against the people, adding that Imo would resist any attempt to do anything to the contrary.
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Arararume who noted that he was contended with any CP brought to the state for the elections, warned that the state would not “condone any form of irregularity from any quarter.”
He said: “You know Imo is a very enlightened state; whatever the people of Kogi where he came from think might not be what Imo people think; we shall resist any form of rigging; we are comfortable with whoever they bring here but they should also know that we are a no-nonsense state.”
Also reacting to the development, former governor of the state and the governorship candidate of the Accord Party, Ikedi Ohakim, warned that Imo electorate would not allow anyone, under any guise to subvert their mandate.
Ohakim, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Collins Ughalaa, stated that he was not perturbed about the changes in the police hierarchy in the state, adding that Imo State would resist any plan to undermine the election by anybody or political party.
In his words, “we have implicit trust in President Muhammadu Buhari, as a man of integrity to allow the will of the people to prevail. We believe that he will do the right thing by ensuring that security agencies are not used by desperate politicians to manipulate the election.”