2019 elections: How police commission will monitor conduct of deployed officers – Barr Mom

As the general elections draw nearer, the Police Service Commission
has assured electorates in the country that it will monitor the
conduct of police officers deployed for the purpose of the exercise.

The Commission equally said it will ensure that officers found wanting
face the full wrath of the law.

This was disclosed by Barr. Rommy Mom, Hon. Commissioner, Representing
Human Rights (North Central), at the opening of a Sensitization
Workshop on, "The Role and Duties of the Police During the General
Elections' for Police Officers from Plateau, Kwara and Niger State
Commands, held at the Police Officers Mess, Jos the Plateau State
Capital.

Mom said, "The Nigeria Police Commission will be sending out monitors
in all the States of the federation including the Federal Capital
Territory, Abuja, their work is to monitor police conduct on the day
of the election.

"After this session, we will sit down with the officers and see how
this can be done in a professional manner, in a manner that is
skilled, that looks at the voter as a king; also in a manner that
those who want to cause problems are quickly apprehended and
sanctioned approximately; in doing that , we have to monitor.

The Commissioner added that, "We did monitor elections in Ekiti and
Osun States and we are sifting those lessons, we are sure that what we
learnt will be built into the 2019 general elections.

"We want the world and Nigerians to know that the Police Service
Commission would be monitoring police conduct during the elections",
he explained.

"What is different and would be different about this monitoring
exercise is that the Commission in every State will be setting up a
small team that will work with the hierarchy of the police in that
State.

According to him, the small team will try to resolve as quickly as
possible any report by citizens that an officer is misconducting his
or herself, or there are issues that the police need to resolve.

"We will be setting up hotlines, lines that you can call free of
charge to talk to us as quickly as possible, this is been done because
election is the soul of democracy, you get it right you get democracy
right, you get wrong, you undermine confidence in your democratic
process and that in itself is not what we are investing in," he
stressed.

He said similar meetings are taking place across the whole country.

In his welcome address, the Commissioner of Police in the State,
Austin Agbonlahor said the essence of the gathering is to continuously
abreast police officers of what is expected of them.