The Police in Kano have been accused of doing little or nothing to address inflammatory and inciting comments by politicians since the beginning of campaigns in the state.
The Inaction and indifferent attitude of the Nigeria Police Command in the state towards stakeholders calling for a quick action has been described as a disturbing trend by Centre for Information Technology and Development.
According to the Centre’s Senior Programmes Officer, Isah Garba, despite bringing to the notice of the Police, instances of such incitement by some prominent politicians in Kano recently, no action has so far been taken by the command while all efforts to meet with the Commissioner of Police proved abortive.
“It is no more news in Kano state today, that all those concerned with the peaceful coexistence through peaceful political atmosphere in the state are highly disturbed with the high growth of inflammatory and provoking statements coming from high level politicians in the state during recent campaigns activities.
Kano citizens may wish to recall that, some days back precisely on 26th November, 2022 CITAD issued a statement expressing concern over the dangerous speech by some prominent politicians in state and called all stakeholders to condemn the attitude and the security agencies to especially the police to invite these politicians and call them to order.
Till date, there is no clear action taken by the police to arrest the situation and this paves way for the politician to continue with the provocative statements, which are detrimental to the peace of the electoral process in the state.
Assessing the situation CITAD planned to meet the Police Commissioner in the state to share their concern with him and postulate ways we think will bring the menace to a halt but to our dismay, all efforts are probed to be abortive.
As electoral stakeholders in the state, CITAD is concerned that should this continue, citizens will lose confidence in the police and ultimately the electoral process and that will undermine the 2023 general elections at a time the sitting president is promising the world a legacy of free, fair and credible elections.
On the other hand, this will also deter many stakeholders from partnering with the Police in promoting the security of the state”, he added.