The police Kogi has warned it is ready to deal with troublesome youths and politicians found disrupting the peaceful conduct of the 2023 elections.

Asafa Adekunle, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG), Zone 8, gave the warning during a stakeholders meeting in Lokoja.

The AIG said that records indicated that some youths and politicians had constituted themselves into clogs in the wheel of peaceful electioneering to the detriment of peace-loving residents of the state.

He warned that the “attitude must stop or meet the dire consequences. The police is ready to deal with any troublesome youth or politician.

“The earlier the better such criminal minded elements repent or leave the state because we are ready to fish them out and deal with them in accordance with the law of the land.”

Mr Adekunle advised the youth to participate in politics and not to allow themselves to be used by politicians to cause violence during the 2023 general elections.

He explained that the essence of the stakeholders’ meeting was to rob minds on how best to go about the forthcoming 2023 polls as well as ensure that the game of politics would be played according to the rules of the game.

Also speaking, the state Commissioner of Police, Akeem Yusuf, said that some bad eggs were in custody and would soon be arraigned in court for electioneering offences.

Mr Yusuf urged women, especially the young ones, to actively participate in politics and contribute their quota to the development of the state and country.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Hale Longpet, commended the police for hosting the stakeholders meeting.

He noted that the meeting would go a long way at sensitising the political actors to the importance of the 2023 polls.

“All we want as a commission is the conduct of a peaceful, credible, free and fair elections come 2023.

“Already we are seriously distributing voter cards to the electorate in all the wards so that there would be mass participation in the elections,” Mr Longpet said.

Earlier, Joy Akinola, Kogi Coordinator, Young Women in Politics Forum, said that she was encouraged by the stakeholders meeting and would take the message to her colleagues.

(NAN)