Nigeria's police chief insists upcoming national polls will be secure, in an interview with AFP News Agency, following concerns about violence commonly witnessed during election seasons.

Africa's most populous country heads to the polls in January when President Bola Tinubu will seek re-election.

Votes have in the past been marred by violence, with politicians accused of recruiting thugs to intimidate opponents and silence dissenting political views, rights groups say.

Ethnic violence also often breaks out.

‘Safe electoral process’

"We will have safe and secure voting in the country," says Olatunji Disu, inspector general of the Nigeria Police Force, who took office 10 months before the vote.

He adds officers were being trained "so that we improve our effort in bringing a perfect election in 2027".

Asked about polling in violence-wracked northern parts of the country, battered by years-long terror attacks and kidnapping by armed "bandit" gangs, he says: "Definitely people will be able to vote."

Violence-impacted regions

Reacting to concerns shared by some Nigerians with AFP about being afraid to travel to their home villages where they are registered, Disu notes the force is working to ensure peace comes to "every part of the country."

President Tinubu says his government is pushing reforms that would require a constitutional amendment to create police forces managed independently by Nigeria's 36 states.

Supporters say it would create nimble forces that are easier to hold accountable, staffed by locals who know the terrain, amid years of rising insecurity and accusations that the federal force may be getting overwhelmed.

"We are in support of state police," says Disu, adding his office "assisted in creating the framework."

Silencing voices

Critics, however, worry that Nigeria's powerful governors will use police forces to crack down on opponents and dissenting voices.

Disu corrects that federal police, which would not be dissolved, will still have some oversight and that training would be standardised nationally.

"If anything that is not supposed to happen starts happening within the state police, measures have been put in place to correct it immediately," Disu says.

Disu came into the top job in March, and says he has been working in the meantime to grow the federal police force, which has just under 300,000 officers, in a country where both the military and police are overstretched, especially in rural areas.

Following a presidential directive, the police aim to increase their numbers to about 350,000, in part by resuming regular recruitment.