Ahead of the Osun governorship election scheduled for Saturday July 16, the State Police Command has withdrawn escorts from all dignitaries and VIPs.

Making this disclosure while speaking on Channels TV, Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), Johnson Babatunde Kokumo, said the police had informed the VIPs of the temporal withdrawal.

“There is a standing instruction that all those VIPs have police protection… We definitely have some categories of Nigerian individuals who are entitled statutorily to these kinds of protections so we have equally told them that we are going to remove them.

“We are removing them temporarily for the purpose of this election,” Mr Kokumo said when asked if the police had retrieved its officers from individuals with police protection.

This comes as the state gears up for the Osun governorship election billed for Saturday.

Mr Kokumo further disclosed that the force had issued identification tags for participating officers in the election, and warned that officers without the issued tag will be arrested.