By Jethro Ibileke
Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Frank Mba, has disclosed that six persons were arrested during the Edo State gubernatorial election.
He disclosed this while giving a situation report on last Saturday’s election.
He also disclosed that four weapons of different mixes, life ammunition, 58 Voter’s cards, and some stolen BiVAS machines were recovered.
He said: “We have a total of six arrests. That’s a summary. We expect this number to shoot up in the course of investigations because we expect that there will be accomplices. I mean there will be people who aided, who abetted, who procured, who facilitated who sponsored these suspects who were arrested.
“For now we have a total number of six suspects in our custody, but we expect that this number will likely go up as we begin to expand and deepen our investigations.
“We also recovered a total number of four weapons, of different mixes. This is also the subject of a very wide investigation. Life ammunition was also recovered in the process of recovering those weapons.
“A total number of 58 voter’s cards that were in the unlawful position of a suspect, some stolen or illegally illicitly acquired BiVAS machines were equally recovered, while we fully recovered some amounts in cash.
“This is a summary of everything we’ve done with our arrest and recoveries, but like I said earlier we expect that as we deep in and continue and expand our investigation we will be able to pick more persons.”
Mba appealed to residents of the state to continue to conduct themselves excellently well as they have been doing, adding that they have nothing to worry about.
He continues: “We know that a lot of Edo citizens or Edolites, who returned to cast their votes, will equally be returning to the different places of abode. In that regard, we will be strengthening security around the highways to ensure that their journey or their traveling out of the states will be safe.
“We’ll equally want to thank members of the press for supporting the givers for placing their different news media at her disposal for helping us to communicate proactively in real-time with members of the public, for giving us feedback from the fields, and for walking with us throughout his elections.”
The DIG commended security operatives for not recording any incident of misuse of firearms.
“We were fair, but we were firm. We were tough on the criminals, but we were protective of the law-abiding and so it was that sense of pride that I brief you today,” he said.