By George Mgbeleke<\/p>\n
\u200e Anxiety has heightened in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, ahead of Saturday\u2019s governorship election following the reported presence of groups of young men at some strategic hotels and locations across the city.<\/p>\n
This is even as Police officers drawn from different parts of the country are assembling at INEC state headquarters to finalize preparation on how to counter plans by thugs of any political party or candidate to disrupt the smooth conduct of the election.<\/p>\n
Efforts by our correspondent to speak to INEC REC, Commissioner of Police or his PPRO as at the time of filling this report failed as the were said to be too busy to talk to the Press.
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\nMeanwhile, eye-witness account who moved around parts of Osogbo in the course of monitoring preparations for the election observed groups of young men congregating at some hotels and other strategic locations.
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\n\u200eHowever, the identities, affiliations and purpose of the groups could not be independently established as of the time of filing this report.
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\n\u200eThe development has nevertheless generated security concerns amid fears that political thugs, cult groups or other criminal elements could exploit the election period to mobilise or cause disturbances.
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\n\u200eResidents who spoke to correspondent expressed mixed reactions, with some urging security agencies to intensify surveillance and intelligence gathering across the state capital.
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\n\u200eThey called on the authorities to identify suspicious gatherings and prevent any attempt to use hotels or other locations as bases for electoral violence, intimidation or disruption of the voting process.
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\n\u200eSecurity experts and stakeholders have consistently emphasised the need for intelligence-led policing during elections, particularly in areas identified as potential flashpoints.
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\n\u200eAs voters prepare to exercise their franchise, security agencies are expected to maintain a visible presence while also gathering intelligence on movements that could threaten public safety.
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\n\u200eThe presence of unidentified groups, therefore, warrants careful investigation rather than assumptions about their identities or intentions.
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\n\u200eWith the election only hours away, residents and stakeholders are calling for heightened vigilance, urging security agencies to protect voters, election officials and electoral materials throughout the exercise.
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\n\u200eThe priority, observers said, should be to ensure that every eligible voter can cast a ballot freely and safely without intimidation or violence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By George Mgbeleke \u200e Anxiety has heightened in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, ahead of Saturday\u2019s governorship election following the reported presence of groups of young men at some strategic hotels and locations across the city. This is even as Police officers drawn from different parts of the country are assembling at INEC state headquarters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16627,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16625\/revisions\/16627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}