Police say tension building up in Benue, identify trouble areas

Ahead of the Saturday’s elections, the Benue State Commissioner of Police, Omololu Bishi, says tension is being built up in the state by political actors.

The CP pointed out four local government areas of Kastina-Ala, Guma, Gboko and Tarka as places prone to crisis.

This is just as two other commissioners of police have been deployed to the state with each of them assigned to a senatorial district.

Speaking yesterday at a stakeholders’ meeting in Makurdi, the state capital, Bishi said there was rampart proliferation of arms in the state.

He said he had called on those bearing illegal arms to surrender them to the police and be granted amnesty or if caught, would be severely dealt with.

A Deputy Inspector-General of Police, DIG Godwin Nwobodo, who was at the meeting, warned trouble makers in Benue State to steer clear of the Saturday’s elections, saying the police have what it takes to deal with them.

Nwobodo, who is in charge of the north-central zone on the sensitisation towards the general elections, advised all the stakeholders to approach the elections with all sense of responsibility by putting the interest of the country foremost.

The DIG warned that people who failed to behave themselves during the exercise would be treated like criminals.

Also speaking, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police newly posted to Zone 4 in Makurdi, Chris Ezike, called for peaceful tolerance among citizens during the elections.

“There must be a robust intervention to check cultism within Makurdi metropolis beginning from this evening. Take the fight into their locations across the state so that we can have a peaceful election. I expect all these (directives) to be carried out in the three states of our operations,” Ezike said.

He further charged security agencies to remain vigilant against any attacks on INEC’s property, urging the electorate to give useful information that would help nib any form of violence or malpractices in the bud.