2023: IGP Orders Distribution Of A Million Copies Of Handbook On Election Security

The Inspector General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba, has ordered the distribution of over a million copies of handbooks on election security duties.

The handbook titled 'Revised Standard Operational Guidelines/Rules for Police Officers and Other Law Enforcement Agents on Election Security Duties' was produced by the Nigeria Police Force.

The handbook contains 36 pages with details on handling political parties' rallies, crowd control, use of lethal force amongst others.

The distribution of the handbooks was part of the preparation for the forthcoming 2023 general elections by the police force. 

This was contained in a statement signed by the spokesperson of the force, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi on Wednesday.

"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 strategic distribution 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", the statement reads.

The IGP also ordered for the distribution of the handbooks 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.

According to the statement, the IGP further expressed optimism that the handbook would be valuable to security agents involved in the election security.

"The Inspector-General of Police reiterates 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, as all hands must be on deck to actualise the mandate and commitment of the NPF to have free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria."