2027: IGP vows ‘safe, secure’ vote despite insecurity

Nigeria’s police chief insisted upcoming national polls will be secure, in an interview with AFP, despite violence that usually flares up during election seasons, a jihadist insurgency and a raging kidnapping crisis. Africa’s most populous country heads to the polls in January when President Bola Tinubu will seek re-election. Votes have in the past been marred by violence, with politicians recruiting thugs to intimidate opponents and silence dissenting political views, rights groups say. Ethnic violence also often breaks out. “We will have safe and secure voting in the country,” said Olatunji Disu, inspector general of the Nigeria Police Force, who took office 10 months before the vote. He said officers were being trained “so that we improve our effort in bringing a perfect election in 2027”.

Asked about polling in violence-wracked northern parts of the country, battered by a years-long jihadist insurgency and kidnapping by armed “bandit” gangs, he said: “Definitely people will be able to vote. ” Some Nigerians have, however, told AFP they are afraid to travel to their home villages where they are registered. The force is working with other bodies, including the military, “to ensure that we bring peace to every part of the country”, Disu said. – Police reforms – Violence has worsened since 2024 and the country now faces its most violent period in nearly three decades, driven by banditry and jihadist attacks, according to US-based conflict monitor ACLED. But it faces huge policing challenges due to the size of the population, insecurity, inadequate resources, public trust and uneven distribution of personnel for its roughly 240 million people. In 2020, major protests broke out against the brutality of the force’s SARS anti-robbery squad. Tinubu’s government is pushing…