Forty-four officers of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) were involved in an auto accident while on their way for election duties.
The incident occurred on Friday at Gwagwalada Area Council of Abuja.
The officers were attached to the Operations Department of the FCT Police Command, and were visited by Mohammed Adamu, the Inspector General of Police, at the hospital on Saturday.
While 33 of the 44 injured officers have been discharged, 11 of them are on admission at various hospitals in Abuja.
Speaking on the incident, Adamu said: “It is because of the election that we decided to deploy our men to polling units. On their way, a team that was deployed to Gwagwalada had an accident and a lot of them were seriously injured.
“You can see that we are at the trauma section of the National Hospital, where some of them are admitted. They have various degrees of injury, ranging from fracture to head injury that requires further investigation. I have ordered that they be taken to another hospital with the necessary equipment to treat them. We are here to make sure that they are given proper treatment to recover.”
The IGP also noted that the Force would take care of their medical bills, then “we can talk about their entitlements.”
He commended the governorship and state house of assembly elections, stating that they were peaceful, just as he encouraged officers on the field on dedication to duty.
He continued: “It is about sacrifice and national assignment. Policing is nothing but a national assignment and what has happened to our policemen here can happen to anybody, but we are encouraged to serve our country the best way we could because no sacrifice is too much for the nation. All we have to do is to make sure that they are properly taken care of.
“The report has been generally peaceful and everything is going well. As you know in human life, nothing is 100 per cent okay. We have pockets of challenges here and there, but we made arrangements to take care of them. So everything is going on well.”