By: Ilyasa Baa
Making sure they prepare very well for the June 24th elections, the Office of National Security (ONS) is currently conducting a series of training trainer’s sessions for institutions within the security sector structure including officers at the Waterloo Police Station whose training was conducted yesterday.
Providing security for the multitier elections requires the physical presence of twenty-five thousand officers, unlike the 2018 elections which were policed by twenty-thousand eight hundred officers with a lesser number of polling centres compared to now.
It could be recalled that a year and a half ago, ONS set up the Integrated Elections Security Planning Committee which identified the opportunities and challenges ahead of the elections and developed three manuals; namely the Elections Security Strategy,
Communications Manual and thirdly the Training Manual which is currently being used for the ongoing training of trainer’s engagement.
The Communications Director of ONS, Abdul Karim Will has said they are training the police, military, Fire Force, Correctional Centre and the Chiefdom police to match up to the number of personnel needed to provide security for the elections.
He called on the Paramount Chiefs to remain apolitical noting that secret societies should not be misused for political gains in any chiefdom within the country. He said in the past secret societies had been used to intimidate political opponents which he said is not going to be tolerated in this election.
