Army deployment: Charge your men to be professional, Dickson tells Buhari

LAGOS, Nigeria – The Governor of Bayelsa State, Henry Seriake Dickson, has called on the President and the leadership of the various security agencies to charge their men to be professional in their duties as they resume for election duties in Bayelsa and other states of the South South geopolitical zone.

A statement by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media Relations, Mr. Fidelis Soriwei, quoted him as having made the comment while reacting to the fresh deployment of troops and other security agents to the state ahead of the Gubernatorial/House of Assembly election scheduled for Saturday,

The Governor said that it was in the interest of the country and indeed the general good for the President and his security chiefs to place emphasis on professionalism of security personnel on deployment to Bayelsa and other states of the Federation. He called on the President to prevail on the security chiefs to ensure that their commanders are professional in the discharge of their security responsibilities to prevent a spontaneous nationwide crisis and instability as a fall out of the elections which are the closest to the people.

The Governor said that while he was not opposed to the deployment of additional security men to maintain law and order in the Society, he was against what he described as the unholy collusion between soldiers on ground and leaders of political thugs in the state.

He restated his demand to the Army High Command to redeploy implicated officers and men of the service involved in brazen criminality in the last election.

“I wish to call on President Muhammadu Buhari to restrain abuse of our security personnel and electoral officers in the next election.The service chiefs and the security commanders must be professional, and emphasize the right thing in all their actions in order not to cause a spontaneous nationwide crisis and instability.

“The fact is that these elections are grassroots election and it is indeed important that the people are allowed to elect their leaders without subversion from anywhere.

“I am one of the greatest collaborators on security matters. I have no problem with security deployments to the state, it is a fact that we need people who will do their job in Nembe Bassambiri, and parts of Southern Ijaw where we have experienced unholy collusion between soldiers and security agencies.

“We as law abiding people want an arrangement that would prevent the criminality and brigandage that marred the Presidential/National Assembly elections so that our people can exercise their right to vote and elect their leaders.”