The Anambra State Police Command says it arrested five suspected thugs with Pump Action guns, allegedly recruited by Ihiala local government officials.
The Commissioner of Police in charge of the 2023 House of Assembly elections in Anambra State, CP Aderemi Adeoye, in a video evidence, confirmed the arrests on Saturday.
A video shared by the Police Public Relations Officer of the Anambra State Police Command, DSP Ikenga Tochukwu Anthony, revealed that the police had earlier warned that it would not tolerate any form of thuggery or malpractices of any kind during the assembly polls in the state.
He said the election must follow strictly the guidelines of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
CP Adeoye said, “Local Government officials in Ihiala brought in armed thugs. The thugs have been arrested. They are 5 in number and 5 pump actions were recovered from them. They have been detained.
“We did warn that we will not tolerate thuggery. We will not tolerate ballot box snatching and we will come down hard on anyone who violates the electoral act and guidelines for the conduct of the election as stipulated by INEC. So these ones that we have arrested have violated the conduct of the election,” he said.