The Deputy Inspector-General of Police, DIG Frank Mba, has disclosed that six suspects were arrested during last Saturday’s Edo State gubernatorial election.
He disclosed this while giving situation report on last Saturday’s governorship election in Edo.
He also disclosed that four weapons of different mix, life ammunition, 58 Voter’s cards and some stolen BiVAS machine 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 mix. This is also a subject of a very wide investigation. Life ammunition were also recovered in the process of recovering those weapons.
“A total number of 58 voter’s cards that were in 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 dig in and continue and expand our investigation that we will be able to pick more persons.”
Mba appealed to residents of the state to continue to conducted 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 back 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 placing their different news media at our 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 the course of 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.